Study: Climate change may unleash a series of deadly viruses and infectious diseases

Study:

Climate change may unleash a series of 

deadly viruses and infectious diseases

A study warned that climate change could lead to a wave of viruses

and the resurgence of old diseases, requiring increased awareness

and willingness to :

address the effects of these extreme events on disease outbreaks.

Researchers from the University of California Davis, Harvard University

and Massachusetts General Hospital warned that climate change could lead to

an increase in infectious diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites.

These include those transmitted through ticks such as malaria, as well as new

fungal infections due to high temperatures.

Ancient diseases such as bubonic plague may become more prevalent

as has already been seen in states such as New Mexico.

The researchers warned that the influx of infectious diseases

could "cause absolute chaos for the whole world."

Dr. George R. Thompson :

lead study author and infectious disease specialist at the University of California

Davis, said:

"Doctors must be prepared to deal with changes in the landscape of infectious

diseases. Identifying the relationship between climate change and disease

behaviour can help guide diagnosis, treatment

and prevention of infectious diseases. "

However :

predictions of the health impacts of climate change have been widely criticized

for their lack of accuracy and difficulty in measuring them.

"Although it is clear that climate change affects human health, it remains difficult

to accurately assess the scale and impact of 

many climate-sensitive health risks," WHO says.

Researchers sounded :

the alarm about vector-spread diseases :

which are caused by infections transmitted by blood-fed insects

such as mosquitoes, ticks and fleas. These diseases include dengue

zika and malaria :

• which are more common in developing countries and extremely rare in

• the United States because of winter temperatures that

• eliminate mosquitoes carrying the disease.

However :

as winter becomes shorter and warmer, this mosquito

has a greater likelihood of surviving and spreading the disease.

In addition :

changing rainfall patterns have brought it closer to 

the United States and other developed countries.

Researchers also noted, for example

that tick-borne diseases, such as Lyme disease, now occur more in winter

and in areas in the west and north than in the past, which experts warned

was due to high seasonal temperatures that

opened new tick habitats in mountain regions.

In the case of malaria

• which is usually more common in Africa's tropics and subtropics

• researchers said that mosquitoes transmitting the disease

• were expanding north because of changing rainfall patterns.

In addition :

• the Panel drew attention to zoonotic diseases, which spread between

• humans and animals. Prominent examples include bubonic plague

• and hantavirus, which are spread by rodents.

The Panel noted that these disease-borne animals had lost their habitats due to

climate change, bringing them closer to humans.

The Panel said that the emergence of new fungal infections such as candidiasis

auris and increased cases of valley fever may be due to higher temperatures.

Researchers in the new study linked sea level rise to extreme events

such as floods, and waterborne diseases, such as the spread of E. coli.