Climate change –  air polution and biacterious diseases.

Fatema Miah:

With the changing climate there are health concerns of  viral and pandemic diseases are in increase across the world. Here in UK itself, London is effected, as well as increased of inhalation and respiratory  problems such as asthma and hay fever. Also there in London  new diagnosed problem spotted and that is Photo-Chemical Smog what is showing hanging over in London nowadays.

The photo-Chemical Smog is Caused by Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) attracting water molecules in the air into tiny droplets, which we see as ‘fog’. The resulting droplets are very acidic and highly irritating. It gets worse as UV from sunlight reacts with the NOx to create Ozone. It is a most unpleasant substance there ever was.

The Climate Change is not The Root Cause for it, it said that the burning of fuels in engines, factories & homes make NOx, hence modern day changes and spread and expansion of diseases as a result of climate change that could ultimately be undermining those efforts to stamp infectious diseases out.

There are some obvious groups of people are more susceptible to changing climate and are  easily effected by climate change and are prone to be effected by the diseases. They are first of all the children, then the women and the elderly.  As well as physical health, the stress of chronic discomfort adding to mental wellbeing as well.

Worldwide there are many other diseases.  Many infectious diseases are what we call climate sensitive. That’s because many diseases that are transmitted by other animals vectors and reservoir species for example are also climate sensitive where climate affects the distribution and abundance of those species and also the replication rates of the pathogens that are being passed around themselves.

The vector borne diseases of those diseases that are transmitted to people via arthropod vectors things like mosquitoes and biting claws or midges. The World Health Organization has summarized that vector borne diseases caused almost a million deaths a year and up to a billion infections and many of those diseases are climate sensitive in some cases climate change is almost certainly going to increase the burden of some infectious diseases.

In other cases we’re less certain and in some cases it might even be possible that climate change reduces the burden of infectious diseases.  Although malaria is not predicted overall to increase as a result of climate change it will almost certainly increase in some areas. For example,  in the highlands of sub-Saharan Africa conditions are becoming increasingly suitable to support the major vectors of malaria there. Other  examples are  the viruses transmitted by the mosquito vector Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. These vectors transmit a number of viruses including Dingee yellow fever and the Zika virus.

Because those mosquito vectors are sensitive to changes in climate we’re expecting changes in the distribution and impact of those diseases under a changing climate. Another class of diseases are what we call zoonotic diseases these are diseases that are transmitted from animals to people. Such things like Ebola or avian flu for example and climate change is expected to similarly have impacts on the distribution of an abundance of these reservoir species and in some cases those changes might also lead to an increase in risk from those infectious diseases.

In addition to changing distribution and abundance of animals that carry diseases we might also see changes in behaviour or migration patterns for example which could be really important for diseases like avian flu and that could be a really complicated pathway to the way that climate change will translate into impacts on human health. For example avian influenza is transmitted among wild birds and then transmitted often to poultry. And then from there into human populations.

Understandably, there  consideration is needed  that there it  could change the effect if migration patterns for example of those wild bird reservoirs, what we might see is a change in the pattern of risk of avian influenza getting into chickens and then getting into people. In addition to undermining existing health management strategies to reduce the burden of diseases what we might see as climate change influencing the distribution of vectors and facilitating their move into a starkly cooler and less suitable places. Fatema Miah, Solihull, uk. fatemamiah@mail.com