Climate Change and Infectious Disease

For centuries, well before the basic notions of infectious diseases were understood, humans have realized that climate changes effect epidemic diseases (Patz et al.). The Roman aristocracy retreated to the hills each summer to avoid malaria and the South Asians learned that early in the summer, heavily curried foods were less likely to cause diarrheal diseases (Patz et al.). Patz et al. stated that there have been three distinct transition periods that changed the human to microbe relationship. Those three transition periods are: 1) Early human settlements enabling enzootic infective species to enter the human population, 2) Early Eurasion civilizations swapped dominant infections by military and commercial contact, and lastly, 3) European expansionism over the past five centuries caused the spread of often lethal infectious diseases. They also state that we could be in the fourth transition, with climate change having a wide range of impacts on the occurrence of infectious diseases in human populations.

Most climate scientists agree that the main cause of global climate change is the human expansion of the greenhouse effect. This is the global warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space (climate.nasa.gov). The main gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons (climate.nasa.gov). Human activities are changing the natural greenhouse effect. The burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (climate.nasa.gov). Carbon dioxide levels have increased from 280 parts per million to 379 parts per million in the last 150 years due to human act...

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... more disease friendly conditions in regions that did not previously host diseases or disease carriers (climate.org). Climate change speeds up the spread of disease largely because warmer temperatures increase the geographical range in which disease carrying animals and insects can survive (climate.org). Climate change contributes to the increased occurrence of extreme events such as floods, storms, droughts, and uncontrolled fires which can also have a negative effect on human health (climate.org). Floods can spread bacteria and viruses and can also contribute to the breeding of insects (climate.org). All of these things together will have huge implications on human health. We could expect to see a higher infection rate as well as a higher death rate among some areas. We could also expect children and the elderly to get sick and possibly die more often as well.