with climate change, comes disease

This weekend there was a medical conference about the health effects of climate change.

“There is a personal responsibility that everyone has to be prepared,” Caid said.

The scientists who spoke on specific diseases, professor Andrew Comrie of the University of Arizona and Jeremy Hess, a consultant for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are backed up by many scientists worldwide in linking warming to health problems. But they acknowledge a lack of hard research documenting or predicting climate-change-disease links.

While they acknowledge that much more data needs to be gathered and evaluated, they all believe that climate change will see an increase in disease. “Climate change will likely amplify existing health problems, and problems will be linked in a way that hasn’t happened before, Hess said in an interview. While society has adequate means to deal with many of the diseases, a breakdown in public infrastructure systems from climate-related emergencies could cause severe problems, he added.”

I thought this was particularly interesting:
Diseases linked to climate change
• Valley fever: Spiked from less than 1,000 cases in 1997 to 5,000 or more cases in Arizona in 2006 and 2007. Increase causes are under study, but they’re possibly linked to drought caused or aggravated by warming. Also could be caused by better reporting, construction dust and more vulnerable elderly people moving here.
• Dengue fever: 100 million cases caused annually worldwide and generally agreed to be moving north into northern Mexico. The aedes aegypti mosquitoes that cause it already live in Tucson. Warmer weather could move the disease to Arizona. The presence of swimming pools, artificial ponds and stagnant water could also draw disease-bearing mosquitoes.
• Chronic respiratory disease: Could rise if hotter temperatures raise ozone air pollution levels.
• Allergies: Could rise if earlier growing seasons for plants generate more pollen.
• West Nile virus: Could also increase with the continued northward movement of mosquitoes due to warmer weather.
• Asthma and other respiratory diseases: Could rise due to fungus and mold growth caused by extreme variations in temperature and precipitation.
• Heat-related desert deaths of illegal immigrants: Could increase as temperatures rise.
• Heart disease, coughing and breathing problems, decreased lung function: Could be aggravated if global warming brings more drought and dust.
• Malaria: Some areas of Arizona not now suitable for malaria-carrying mosquitoes could become suitable by 2050 due to warmer, more humid weather.

I also thought this was a significant statement: “”Climate is complicated. It forces us to think through what our responsibility is to future generations. It is expensive to deal with. A lot of people don’t want to talk about it,” said Hess, from Emory University.”

I am always writing about the effects of our decisions now, on the children. The truth is that with climate change it is unlikely that you or I may develop asthma or allergies. We are conditioned and we have years of immunity due to exposure. However, children have week immune systems, they are more likely to get dehydrated, and more often outdoors. Yes. It is expensive to deal with, but not compared to the medical cost that will be force upon us if we do not start taking action.

HERE is the article.