Disease outcomes linked to environment deterioration
NEWDELHI: The impacts of climate change or global warming include droughts, floods, landslides, cyclones and a rise in sea levels, among other hazards. In the long run, rising temperatures will affect clean air, safe drinking water, food supply and secure shelter, say experts.
There is a dangerous link between deteriorating environment and disease outcomes. And rising air pollution is an immediate concern as it causes irreversible damage to airways and lungs, triggering allergies and lowering lung capacity.
High temperatures raise the levels of ozone and other pollutants in the air that exacerbate cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Pollen and other aeroallergen (substances in the air that cause allergies) levels are also higher in extreme heat conditions, and can trigger asthma, says a World Health Organization (WHO) report. Another culprit is particulate matters (PM), a mixture of solids and liquid droplets floating in the air that range between 2.5 to 10 micrometers in diameter. PM2.5 killed more than 5 lakh people in India in 2015, shows a report by the The Lancet, a British medical journal.
“Particles less than 2.5 micron (PM2.5) can directly enter our body through respiratory pathway and can lead to breathlessness, cough, fever and even choking. Our nervous system gets affected and we may experience headache, nausea or vomiting. It also affects our heart,” says Dr Sandeep Nayar, senior consultant and the head of the department (respiratory medicine, allergy and sleep disorder), at Delhi’s BLK Super Speciality Hospital.
Floods, which could be triggered by global warming, contaminate freshwater supplies, heighten the risk of water-borne diseases and create breeding grounds for disease-carrying insects such as mosquitoes.
“During floods, water supplies tend to get contaminated with sewage water that can lead to diseases such as diarrhoea and viral hepatitis. The best way to prevent falling sick is by drinking boiled water,” says Dr MP Sharma, a senior consultant of gastroenterology at Rockland Hospital.
Malaria, which spreads though the bite of an anopheles mosquito and kills 400,000 people each year across the world, is severely influenced by climate.
The Aedes mosquito, which carries the dengue virus, is also highly sensitive to climate conditions, and studies suggest that climate change is likely to increase the exposure to dengue.
In India, 844, 558 cases of malaria and 194 deaths due to the disease were reported in 2017. And 188, 401 cases of dengue and 325 resultant deaths were reported the same year.