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Mansour, Air Water Borne Diseases 2013, 3:1
http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2167-7719.1000e126
Editorial
Open Access
Impact of Climate Change on Air and Water Borne Diseases
Sameeh A Mansour*
Professor of Pesticides & Environmental Toxicology, Environmental Toxicology Research Unit (ETRU), Pesticide Chemistry Department, National Research Centre,
Dokki, Cairo, Egypt
Over the last 50 years, human activities-particularly the burning
of fossil fuels-have released sufficient quantities of carbon dioxide and
other greenhouse gases to trap additional heat in the lower atmosphere
and affect the global climate. In the last 100 years, the world has warmed
by approximately 0.75°C. Over the last 25 years, the rate of global
warming has accelerated, at over 0.18°C per decade [1]. Sea levels are
rising, glaciers are melting and precipitation patterns are changing.
Extreme weather events are becoming more intense and frequent.
Although global warming may bring some localized benefits,
such as fewer winter deaths in temperate climates and increased food
production in certain areas, the overall health effects of a changing
climate are likely to be overwhelmingly negative. Climate change
affects social and environmental determinants of health-clean air, safe
drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter [2,3].
Waterborne Diseases and Climate Change
Waterborne illness results when pathogens enter the water supply
without detection and are then consumed, either directly through
drinking water or indirectly from contaminated food, by unsuspecting
humans. Waterborne diseases are caused by a variety of microorganisms,
biotoxins, and toxic contaminants, which lead to devastating illnesses
such as cholera, schistosomiasis and other gastrointestinal problems [4].
Outbreaks of waterborne diseases often occur after a severe precipitation
event (rainfall, snowfall). Because climate change increases the severity
and frequency of some major precipitation events, communitiesespecially in the developing world could be faced with elevated disease
burden from waterborne diseases. In addition, diseases caused by
Vibrio bacteria such as cholera and other intestinal diseases may pose a
greater threat due to the effect that rising sea temperatures will have on
the growth and spread of bacteria. Climate change is likely to increase
diarrheal disease incidence worldwide, and extreme weather conditions
may also complicate already-inadequate prevention efforts [5,6].
Changes in climate are likely to lengthen the transmission seasons
of important vector-borne diseases and to alter their geographic range.
For example, climate change is projected to widen significantly the
area of China where the snail-borne disease schistosomiasis occurs.
Schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease transmitted by aquatic snails, also
seems to be affected by climate. In China, the latitudinal threshold
beyond which temperatures were too cold for the snail to live have
moved northwards, putting nearly 21 million more people at risk of
the disease [6].
Mosquitoes are responsible for the biological transmission of
several diseases like filariasis, dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis,
and malaria. Despite an array of control measures taken to suppress
mosquito populations, they continue to flourish and contribute to high
human mortalities, particularly in developing countries. Malaria kills
almost 1 million people every year – mainly African children under
five years old. It had been reported that the mosquito, Anopheles gambia
causes killing of one child every 30 seconds in Sub-Saharan Africa (e.g.,
Benin, Eritrea, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal,
South Africa, Togo, Zambia); a matter which led the WHO to permit
Air Water Borne Diseases
ISSN: 2167-7719 AWBD, an open access journal
the reuse of DDT since September 2006 to combat malaria and other
vector borne diseases in these countries [7]. Mosquitoes are strongly
influenced by climate variables, such as temperature and availability
of brackish water. Studies suggest that climate change could expose an
additional 2 billion people to dengue transmission by the 2080s [8].
Vector Borne and Zoonotic Diseases (VBZD), such as malaria
and Avian Flu, are infectious diseases whose transmission to humans
involves vertebrate and invertebrate animal hosts. Many VBZD are
climate sensitive and ecological shifts associated with climate change
are expected to impact the distribution and incidences of these diseases.
Changes in temperature and precipitation directly affect VBZD through
pathogen-host interaction, and indirectly through ecosystem changes
and species composition. For instance, an increase in temperature and
precipitation can alter predator-prey relationships and increases the
population of vectors where they normally live [5,6,9].
The spread of other vector-borne diseases could also increase. The
cholera bacteria Vibrio cholerae can live on some species of plankton.
Warmer sea temperatures mean more plankton blooms, which could
mean the cholera bacteria flourishes, spreading to populations on the
warm coasts of countries [10].
Airborne Diseases and Climate Change
Airborne diseases are those diseases which are caused by
pathogenic microbial agents which get discharged through coughing,
sneezing, laughing or through close personal contact. These pathogens
ride on either dust particles or small respiratory droplets and can
stay suspended in air and or are travelling distances on air currents.
Infectious diseases spread by “droplet infection” have long been one of
the most deadly branches of disease. It has been calculated that about
half of all episodes of human illness are caused by respiratory viruses.
Most of these are of course quite trivial infections like the most frequent
of them all, the common cold. Airborne diseases are being about twice
as significant as water and food-borne diseases. “Droplet infection”
continues as by far the commonest and most important in civilized
countries. Add to colds and Flu the fact that most of the generalized
infections of childhood such as measles, chickenpox, mumps and
rubella are also spread by the respiratory route and it becomes clear that,
in advanced countries, droplet infection is much the most important
route by which infectious diseases spread [11].
*Corresponding author: Sameeh A Mansour, Professor of Pesticides &
Environmental Toxicology, Environmental Toxicology Research Unit (ETRU),
Pesticide Chemistry Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt,
Tel: (202) 333-71211; E-mail: [email protected]
Received December 16, 2013; Accepted December 17, 2013; Published
December 23, 2013
Citation: Mansour SA (2013) Impact of Climate Change on Air and Water Borne
Diseases. Air Water Borne Diseases 3: e126. doi:10.4172/2167-7719.1000e126
Copyright: © 2013 Mansour SA. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and
source are credited.
Volume 3 • Issue 1 • 1000e126
Citation: Mansour SA (2013) Impact of Climate Change on Air and Water Borne Diseases. Air Water Borne Diseases 3: e126. doi:10.4172/21677719.1000e126
Page 2 of 2
Climate change is expected to affect air quality through several
pathways, including production and allergenicity of allergens and
increase regional concentrations of ozone, fine particles, and dust. Some
of these pollutants can directly cause respiratory disease or exacerbate
existing conditions in susceptible populations, such as children or the
elderly [11].
Who is at Risk and Ways of Mitigation?
All populations will be affected by climate change, but some are
more vulnerable than others. People living in small island developing
states and other coastal regions, megacities, and mountainous and polar
regions are particularly vulnerable. Children-in particular, children
living in poor countries-are among the most vulnerable to the resulting
health risks and will be exposed longer to the health consequences. The
health effects are also expected to be more severe for elderly people and
people with infirmities or pre-existing medical conditions. Areas with
weak health infrastructure-mostly in developing countries-will be the
least able to cope without assistance to prepare and respond [12].
A WHO feasibility analysis for creating prediction systems calls
for health policymakers’ involvement at the earliest stages, because
even the best early warning systems will be worth little if operational
responsibilities aren’t clearly delineated and agreed from the beginning
[13].
In 2009, the World Health Assembly endorsed a new WHO work
plan on climate change and health [14]. This includes:
• Advocacy: to raise awareness that climate change is a
fundamental threat to human health.
• Partnerships: to coordinate with partner agencies within the
UN system, and ensure that health is properly represented in
the climate change agenda.
• Science and evidence: to coordinate reviews of the scientific
evidence on the links between climate change and health, and
develop a global research agenda.
• Health system strengthening: to assist countries to assess
their health vulnerabilities and build capacity to reduce health
vulnerability to climate change.
References
1. UK-Met Office (2008) The United Kingdom Government Met Office: HadCRUT3
annual time series, Hadley Research Centre.
2. Arnell NW (2004) Climate change and global water resources: SRES emissions
and socio-economic scenarios. Global Environmental Change – Human and
Policy Dimensions 14: 31-52.
3. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) Impacts, Adaptation and
Vulnerability. (Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment
Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Geneva.
4. Hunter PR (1997) Waterborne Disease Epidemiology and Ecology. John Wiley
and Sons, Chichester, England.
5. Charron DF, Edge T, Fleury MD, Galatianos W, Gillis D, et al. (2005) Links
Between Climate, Water And Waterborne Illness, and Projected Impacts of
Climate Change. HPRP 6795-15-2001/4400016c.
6. Zhou XN, Yang GJ, Yang K, Wang XH, Hong QB, et al. (2008) Potential impact
of climate change on schistosomiasis transmission in China. Am Trop Med Hyg
78: 188-194.
7. Hileman B (2006) Malaria control, resurging use of the banned pesticide DDT
to prevent malaria poses dilemma for health, environment. Chem Eng News
84: 30-31.
8. Simon H, Neil de W, John M, Alistair W (2002) Potential effect of population and
climate changes on global distribution of dengue fever: an empirical model. The
Lancet 360: 830-834.
9. Githeko AK (2000) Climate change and vector-borne diseases: A regional
analysis. Bulletin of the WHO 78: 1136-1147.
10.Colwell RR (1996) Global climate and infectious diseases: the cholera
paradigm. Science 274: 2025-2031.
11.Ashrae (2012) Ashrae Position Document on Airborne Infectious Diseases.
12.Patz JA, Campbell-Lendrum D, Holloway T, Foley JA (2005) Impact of regional
climate change on human health. Nature 438: 310-317.
13.Kuhn K (2005) Using climate to predict infectious disease epidemics. WHO
Geneva.
14.WHO (2009) Protecting health from climate change: connecting science, policy
and people. World Health Organization, Geneva.
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Citation: Mansour SA (2013) Impact of Climate Change on Air and Water
Borne Diseases. Air Water Borne Diseases 3: e126. doi:10.4172/21677719.1000e126
Air Water Borne Diseases
ISSN: 2167-7719 AWBD, an open access journal
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Volume 3 • Issue 1 • 1000e126