Climate Change and Diseases

Several infectious diseases will worsen because of climate change; these diseases can be extremely harmful and even deadly to human beings.

If time goes on and nothing is done to fix this evident problem the health of humans all around the world will start to consistently deteriorate. Climate change is causing existing diseases to affect a larger amount of people. Vector borne diseases, such as Malaria and the West Nile Virus, will affect more people because the warmer weather will allow them to move into other habitats and infect other people.

Many other diseases will also begin to have much larger impacts on people’s health. The cause of this ongoing crisis is climate change, and if the situation continues at the rate that it is currently at humans will suffer immensely.

As climate change continues to warm the planet natural disasters such as fires are sadly inevitable. These fires are destroying the natural habitats of animals which in turn forces humans and animals into close contact.

This allows for diseases that originated in animals to spread much more easily to humans. The author of “How Climate Change is Exacerbating the Spread of Diseases”, Renee Cho has stated in her article “According to the United States Agency for International Development, “nearly 75 percent of all new, emerging, or re-emerging diseases affecting humans at the beginning of the 21st century are zoonotic”. A majority of diseases that affect humans originate in animals, so it is clear that putting animals and humans into close contact would have disastrous results.

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Diseases will continue to spread at a faster rate and there will be very little protection from a worldwide epidemic.

Ebola is a disease that for the time being is only found in Africa. It is an incredibly serious diseases that has many symptoms such as fatigue, fever, muscle pain, vomiting blood and may even lead to death. Climate change is warming the climate, and this at first glance may seeming appealing but it will have horrendous effects on the health of human beings. When the weather is warm and there is heavy rainfall bountiful amounts of fruit are produced.The fruit attracts bats, which are the suspected carriers of Ebola, and apes. This creates an opportunity for the disease to be spread to apes. Then the disease has a much higher chance of spreading to humans. Half of all reported cases of Ebola have been linked to eating or handling wild animals. Climate change will also force people to be more cautious about what they eat. This might cause a food shortage in certain parts of Africa, and force people to have to eat wild animals in order to not starve. Also according to research done by EcoHealth Alliance climate change will expand the territory of bats by creating more places that have an environment that is suitable for them. This will create more opportunities for Ebola to spread between humans. Since there is no cure for Ebola the hundreds of thousands of people that will be affected by this will be left to suffer and parish helplessly.

The West Nile Virus and Malaria are both deadly diseases. They are also vector borne diseases, meaning that they are spread through mosquitoes. “Extreme or shifting weather patterns helped expand the habitat of the mosquitoes that can carry those illnesses—and experts say that outbreaks are bound to become more common as the effects of climate change become more prevalent.” wrote Molly M. Ginty. The West Nile Virus has already begun spreading throughout the world. As the climate warms up the habitat of the mosquitoes will become larger and they will infect more people. The warmer weather also expands the life span of these mosquitoes. After severe weather changes caused by climate change infected mosquitoes were able to infect and kill 7 people in New York. Malaria will also begin to spread to different regions as climate change warms the planet. A warm and wet climate is the perfect environment for mosquitoes to breed. The more mosquitoes breed the higher chance of Malaria spreading in that area. Malaria has already killed over one million people and it will continue to kill even more people as it spreads to new regions.

Ticks are the carriers of Lyme disease, and more recently ticks have been able to relocate to different places because of climate change. Warmer weather has increased the active period and geographical range of ticks. In recent years there have been many more suitable habitats for ticks. Even colder environments like Canada have become susceptible to the spread of Lyme disease. Lyme disease can cause flu-like symptoms, joint pain, long term fatigue, and it can be potentially deadly. Experts also warn people that Lyme disease can be especially dangerous because ticks are small and hard to spot. Inevitably as the planet warms up ticks will have a larger area that they will be able to survive in, and the diseases they carry will be able to affect more people.

Conclusion

Climate change is worsening the spread of diseases and if no action is taken against it the problem will only get worse and spread all over the world. Many diseases that only affect a small number of the population will become major problems. Climate change is very rapidly expanding the geographical range of certain animals that carry diseases that can harm humans. It is also bringing humans and animals into close contact which is enabling diseases to spread more efficiently. Many diseases such as Ebola and Lyme Diseases will continue to spread all over the world and affect millions of people. While the West Nile Virus and Malaria will broaden their capacity of harming people through vectors such as mosquitoes. Climate change is an affliction that must be dealt with before an irreversible catastrophe occurs.