Health effects of climate change
The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on climatic Change (IPCC) found that, in light of rising global temperatures, adaptation will become more difficult and climatic threats will materialise faster than previously anticipated.
It also shows that 3.6 billion people currently reside in regions that are extremely vulnerable to climate change. The health effects are greatest in low-income nations and small island developing states (SIDS), even if their relative contributions to global emissions are negligible. Compared to less sensitive areas, the death rate from extreme weather events during the past ten years was fifteen times higher in vulnerable regions.
Numerous factors related to climate change are affecting health, including the increased frequency of extreme weather events that cause illness and death.
The ability of diseases or the insects that transport them to spread into environments that were previously too cold for them is one of the most important ways that a warmer world influences infectious disease. This is the case with diseases spread by mosquitoes, for example, and more recently with Vibrio vulnificus, the so-called "flesh-eating bacteria."
The bacteria, which can induce vomiting or diarrhoea, thrives in marine or brackish waters that are warmer than 20°C. However, if it gets into a wound, it can lead to necrotizing fasciitis, a condition in which the bacteria consumes the tissue surrounding the wound and sometimes necessitates amputation. Of those it infects, one in five can die from V vulnificus. On the US east coast, infections have increased eight-fold between 1988 and 2018 due to warmer sea temperatures.
The cholera epidemic that has been sweeping the globe for decades is prevalent in a number of nations and can explode in outbreaks under the appropriate circumstances. Acute diarrheal illness known as cholera is brought on by consuming food or water tainted with Vibrio cholerae.
This indicates that the conditions are set up for an outbreak of this deadly disease when meteorological events like floods occur in areas with poor infrastructure for water, sanitation, and hygiene. In response, nations like Kenya are launching vaccination campaigns and boosting up surveillance.
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