The Effects Of Climate Change On The Future Global Transmission Of Malaria

Due to the fact that there is currently no risk of malaria in the Republic of Cuba, malaria is not an issue in the Republic of Cuba. The Republic of Cuba however, would like to help countries or territories at risk with their knowledge and experience they have had with malaria. After vector control efforts during

According to the World Health Organization, a 2008 study showed that in the last 100 years, the world has warmed by approximately 0.75oC (Cruickshank 354). This warming has been and is a major factor that has contributed to the increase of destructive weather events. Such could be true in the case of the deadly typhoon that struck the Philippines in November of 2013. These weather events, in turn, contribute to the fact that infectious disease is the cause of approximately 37 percent of all the deaths in the world. This statistic is only expected to increase as a result of global warming. Additionally, over 40% of the citizens of developing countries and less than 2% of the citizens of developed countries are infected at any given time (Chan et al. 330). This is a staggering inequality, and it is undeserved that many of the countries that are being the most affected did little to contribute to the cause of global warming. This is why developing countries were specifically chosen to be looked into opposed to the entire earth population. Now, that some context has been given, more specific examples and studies can be looked into.

Global Warming has been a big issue that has effects on the environment, people, and the world, and if not stopped now, the results could be catastrophic. The main cause of climate change is likely to be the result of too much carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. CO2 creates a blanket which traps heat. Burning fossil fuels for energy, such as coal, oil, and natural gas release CO2 which impacts the atmosphere heavily. Waste management and agricultural practices also produce gases that contribute to climate change, such as methane. There are many contributing factors to climate change.

Climate change is not an idea that just popped into existence within the last few years, it has been a political issue since the 1990's but the issue began to raise its head in the 1970's. There are many different factors that play into the greenhouse effect that has wrapped the planet. The most important cause is the gases in the atmosphere blocking heat from escaping. While carbon dioxide plays a part in the greenhouse effect, the most abundant is water vapor while the methane in the atmosphere is far more active than the carbon dioxide will ever be. Nitrous oxide, used in soil cultivation practices, and Chlorofluorocarbons, which are synthetic compounds of industrial origin, also play a part, but on a smaller scale (Global Climate Change:

From the beginning of human history, we, as a species, have made an extreme effort to adapt. Through famine, drought, and war, we miraculously found a way to survive 200,000 years and dominate almost every continent (Shillington 13). One of the key methods to our survival throughout history is our understanding of diseases. Though it would take us tens of thousands of years to understand exactly what diseases are, we did notice that certain areas were more likely to make people sick and that these places were to be avoided at all costs. A prime example of this is the avoidance of swamps in early Africa due to sleeping sickness. Spread by the tsetse fly, sleeping sickness is a disease fatal to humans as well as livestock. When it was noticed that these blood sucking flies rarely left swampy areas, early humans learned to avoid these them, which in turn lowered the amount of deaths cause by sleeping sickness (Shillington 26). However, not all diseases are solved simply by moving locations. In modern day Africa, one of the deadliest diseases is malaria. Being carried by mosquitos, malaria can exist almost anywhere on the continent. According the Doctor’s Without Boarders, a child in Africa dies of malaria every minute (Doctors Without Boarders). Though larger countries have the ability and resources to fight malaria, younger countries are finding difficulties eliminating this disease. One of these

Global climate change has been a controversial issue for many years. Global climate change, often referred to as ‘global warming,’ is a broad issue that encompasses many categories. However, I have decided to focus more the on the health issues that arise due to the effects that Global Climate Change has had on this planet. As a concerned citizen, it is important to take into account where diseases are coming from and why people are getting ill; whether this is caused due to sanitation, vector or food borne factors. If physicians are able to practice preventative medicine more, then there is a chance to decrease the number of people that get ill. Global Climate Change is and should be a topic of concern because it is affecting the health of

It was endemic in Europe, including Scandinavia, but it was eventually eliminated in 1975 through a number of factors related to socioeconomic development. Any role that climate played in malaria reduction would have been small. Nevertheless, the potential for malaria transmission is intricately connected to meteorological conditions such as temperature precipitation In conditions for transmission in Europe have remained favourable as documented by sporadic autochthonous transmission of a tropical malaria strain by local vectors to a susceptible person

In addition to waterborne disease prevalence, malaria would also pose as high risk in Togo. Africa already accounts for 90% of malaria cases. Therefore, with extreme weather events resulting from climate change, this risk is heightened (Tatlock, 2006). According to the UN, “water stress plays an indirect role in curing malaria because it impedes the human recovery process” (Tatlock, 2006). Not only does malaria thrive during water scarcity, but the disease also flourishes in high temperatures and increased moisture, too. Thus, the change in climate would spike the incidence of malaria in Togo.

There are a number of factors that contribute to the overall transmission and geographic distribution of malaria. Depending of the certain factor, determines the outcome of the pattern of malaria. Climate is a major factor when looking at the causes of malaria on a global scale. Climate can be simply described as the weather conditions predominant in certain geographical areas and/or over a time period. Where malaria occurs is principally reliant on the climate. Different regions and continents around the world vary in temperatures, which is why malaria occurs in certain regions as this is the ideal temperature for mosquitos to thrive. The leading regions that cause the general pattern of malaria is tropical and subtropical regions. These

The impact of this warm period is seen in the increase in “warm days” and decrease in “cold days” throughout the year (IPCC). In addition, a major contributor to global warming is the release of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide. One prediction forecasts the rise in temperatures from 1990 to 2100 to be between 1.7 and 4.9 degrees “in the absence of climate mitigation policies (Sciencemag).” Although very high, these figures indicate that global warming is concerning to climate scientists, and should be viewed as a prevailing problem by all humans. Evidence of global warming’s intensifying effects is seen in Africa, where the spread of disease is becoming uncontrollable.

Around the world there has been shifts in the transportation of the leech, which is involved with Malaria (Guerra et al., 2006). Deforestation is likely to be at a higher level in the years to come (Guerra et al., 2006). Because of the increase in Deforestation there will be an increase in Malaria as well because of the link between the two. Deforestation and the disease Malaria causes more Malaria exposure in the Americas and declines in Asia. Over the past couple of years there has been a huge increase in Malaria (Snow et al., 2006). Deforestation in areas such as; the Amazon, Africa, and Asia have been increasing dramatically (Guerra at al., 2006). Many different things can cause increases in Malaria. It can be caused by changes in environment by deforestation, changing the forest into rice paddies is a more stable environment for Malaria (Guerra et al., 2006). Depending on the different type of Malaria, deforestation can cause an increase in certain types of Malaria depending on the type of environment the Malaria likes (Guerra

The understanding of climate change and its influences on the developmental and activity levels for various vectors is a critical factor of concern in terms of control and management of transmissible diseases. Presently, the concomitant changes in the global temperatures have resulted in elevation of the global temperatures by 1.50C to 4.50C over the last 1200 years (Williams, Mincham, Ritchie, Viennet, & Harley, 2014). Although consistent changes are evident across the globe, the latitudinal differences present an additional variation across the entire world. Even within the latitudinal differences, the changes are not homogenous. For instance, the degree of climate warming at the equatorial zones is slower in comparison with the one at the higher latitudes such as the Nearctic as well as at the Palearctic regions (Williams, Mincham, Ritchie, Viennet, & Harley, 2014). Moreover, research shows that summer temperatures also warm at a slower rate compared to the winter temperatures (Williams, Mincham, Ritchie, Viennet, & Harley, 2014). The climate warming experienced over the Earth’s surface also affects precipitation distribution across the Earth (Walton & Reisen, 2013). For instance, the warming processes and the changes in precipitation patterns over the last decade signals that northern high latitudes are increasingly becoming wetter as African and Asian continents continue to become drier with the course of time (Walton & Reisen, 2013).

While reducing emissions to halt climate change is of the utmost importance, we must remember that the best case scenario would be a global temperature increase of around 2 °c. Therefore, we must also fo¬cus our efforts on mitigating the effects of climate change, including its potential impact on the global distribution of infec¬tious diseases. In order to accomplish this, additional research is needed on the epide¬miology and ecology of the infectious dis¬eases that will likely be affected by climate change. However, these diseases typically fall under the category of “neglected dis¬eases,” meaning that they primarily affect people living in poverty. In 2007, the national institutes of health in the US spent less than 1% of its entire op¬erating budget on research related to the neglected diseases. More recently,

With the fast economic development, the global warming issue is threatening our planet nowadays. Global warming can cause ice melting, which leads to sea level rise globally. Many lovely cities and countries, such as London, Venice, and Bangladesh will be flooded with seawater and will disappear on the map. Moreover, ecosystems are badly affected by global warming, which forces many species to leave their homelands and move to the north or even extinct. Not only animals are under the extinction dangers, but also human beings are enduring the extreme weather, such as floods, acid rains, storms, droughts, etc. Along with the hostile environment, the human beings are in danger of the spreading disease, such as malaria.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines global climate change as a large- scale change in climate patterns over the years, which includes changes in rainfall- and temperature- related greenhouse effects, where radiation gets trapped beneath the atmosphere. The average global temperature is predicted to rise 2.0 – 4.5˚C by the year 2100, which would have significant impact on vector-borne diseases. The temperature range for dengue is between 14 °C and 40 °C. With a 2 °C increase in temperature the extrinsic incubation period of dengue will be shortened and more infected mosquitoes will be available for a longer period of time. Mosquitoes will also bite more frequently because of dehydration and thus further increase man-mosquito contact (WHO, 2014)