As the planet gets warmer, the ecology of vector-borne disease (VBD) causing organisms such as mosquitos, ticks, and flies is direly affected. Depending on each organism’s suitability to the ecosystems and resilience to the climate stimuli, their longevity, reproduction cycles, and potency also change, effectively increasing uncertainty on their spread. And precisely, that makes it even harder to predict the spread of VBDs such as dengue fever, Zika virus, Lyme disease, and malaria. Undeniably, the more global warming will occur, the greater the chances of spread of VBDs, especially in tropical regions. This policy brief summarizes the impact of climate change on VBDs, with particular attention to developing nations.
The Current State of Climate-Sensitive Diseases
To date, 88 countries have registered the Zika virus infection. Despite being discovered in 1947 in monkeys and 1952 in humans, the first outbreak was reported in the Federated States of Micronesia in 2007, followed by a series of infections in French Polynesia in 2013 and other regions in the Pacific with a total global infection of over 10,000 cases (Tabbabi, 2018). Malaria, on the other hand, was responsible for the death of about half a million lives and affected 219 million individuals, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria also accounts for 61% of infant mortality below five years (WHO, 2017). With the current global warming rate, the tropical disease is projected to increase by 18% by 2030, with 3.4 billion people at risk globally
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Collectively, Chikungunya, dengue fever, African trypanosomiasis, and schistosomiasis have infected about three million people in 2018 and 2019 and have cost respective governments and agencies (such as Red Cross, UN, and WHO) no less than USD 10 billion in awareness and management (Balbus, 2019). Despite being somewhat ignored in the mainstream limelight, dengue fever incidences in 2017 were 105 million, 6.2 million had Chagas disease, 143 million had schistosomiasis, 21 million people lived with onchocerciasis in Africa and the Asia Pacific. What is more, the infection rates were projected to rise by 17.9% for every 1%-degree rise in global temperatures (Dubrow & Rocklov, 2020). Therefore, there is a need to find an actionable course of action in managing climate and climate-sensitive VBDs.
How Climate Change Affects VBDs
Far from directly affecting individual VBD species (such as impacting their mating frequency), climate affects their transition dynamics and the geographical spread. That means insects like mosquitos could be pushed by weather into densely populated habitats, increasing the risk of infections. More so, a consistently positive temperature gradient is known to reduce the pathogen’s incubation period as well as feeding frequency in arthropods. In effect, diseases like the dengue virus and African trypanosomiasis get transmitted faster (Dubrow & Rocklov, 2020). Likewise, Caminade et al. (2019) observed a possibility of more aggressive and random mutation of the Zika virus in warmer temperatures and lower altitudes, which could jeopardize the current state of knowledge and medication on the virus.
Impact of Global Warming on The Healthcare Delivery System
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) worry that sustained global warming may spread the impact of VBDs beyond the current hotspots, given that we share one sky. Of particular interest is North America, whose semi-tropical climate predisposes it to vector-borne pathogens. In readiness for any eventualities, Ohio, California and Utah have put in place preliminary programs to promote research on the Zika virus, Lyme disease, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, prevalent in the regions. While malaria seems to have received sufficient attention, other VBDs are considered exotic and seem to pose little bother.
In Cleveland, the Cleveland Clinic is partnering with NYU Langone Medical Centre to develop software that can reliably predict the spread of VBDs in line with climatic patterns, which is expected to help predict outbreaks (Chen & Murthy, 2019). Nationally, the Department of Public Health has only initiated awareness programs but admits that outrageous episodes of VBDs could massively impair the healthcare delivery system. Non-profits like the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) collaborate with CDC’s Division of vector-borne diseases to develop resource maps to help draw more predictable relations between local climate and VBDs. Despite the measures taken at state and national levels, the issue of climate-sensitive diseases requires global attention.
Suggestions to Mitigate the Problem
While global warming, the chief cause, cannot be quickly fixed, the government, non-profits, independent organizations, and the public can pull a collaborative effort to stem further spread of VBDs. The recommendations include, but are not limited to the following suggestions:
Simple community-based awareness programs should be launched to reduce mosquito breeding habitats. Such include draining stagnant water and minimizing bushes and thickets around residences. Likewise, proper preparedness includes beefing up individual effort to have insect repellents and controlling ticks and fleas on pets.
Besides, it is imperative to consider technological contributions. That includes funding the development of genetically-altered repellents that sterilize male mosquitos. Also, Ross et al. (2019) suggest an investment in Wolbachia’s approval, a synthetic bacterium that reduces the hosts’ ability to transmit diseases by limiting its capacity. It would be great if Wolbachia were fine-tuned to minimize its risk to transmit pathogens to other insects.
Another solution is investing in better preparedness of the public health systems. The preparedness plan should establish a transparent chain of command in addressing VBD outbreaks, embrace public opinion and participation in research, and promote precise incident reporting mechanisms. That is in recognition of human population behaviour as a critical factor of VBD outbreak and infection. However, the golden solution is environmental conservation to stem global warming, which calls for world leaders to take the conservationist stance much stronger.
In conclusion, global warming poses a predictable impact on vector-borne pathogens, which, in turn, threaten to make diseases like malaria and the Zika virus more prevalent. Considering the massive toll VBDs take on human life as well as the economic factor, concerned parties must realize how imperative it is to craft a working plan for the predictable future. While we cannot manage climate change rapidly, effectively, and timely as scientists wish, governments, organizations, and individuals can take preventive measures to make the eventualities more bearable. More importantly, the VBD problem calls on the collective effort since we share one sky, and thus the need to quickly consent to global environmental policies that will save the planet.
References
Balbus, J., Limaye, V., & Knowlton, K. (2019, October 9). “Putting A Price On the Costs of Climate Related Health Impacts.” American Geophysical Union. Retrieved Https://Eos.Org/Editors-Vox/Putting-A-Price-On-The-Costs-Of-Climate-Related-Health-Impacts
Caminade, C., Mcintyre, K. M., & Jones, A. E. (2019). Impact of Recent and Future Climate Change On Vector‐Borne Diseases. Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences , 1436 (1), 157.
Chen, A. & Murthy, V. (2019, September 18). “How Health Systems Are Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change.” Harvard Business Review. Retrieved Https://hbr.Org/2019/09/How-Health-Systems-Are-Meeting-The-Challenge-Of-Climate-Change
Rocklöv, J., & Dubrow, R. (2020). Climate Change: An Enduring Challenge for Vector-Borne Disease Prevention and Control. Nature Immunology , 21 (5), 479-483.
Ross, P. A., Turelli, M., & Hoffmann, A. A. (2019). Evolutionary Ecology of Wolbachia Releases for Disease Control. Annual Review of Genetics , 53 , 93-116.
Tabbabi, A. (2018). Impacts of Climate Change On Vector Borne Diseases. MOJ Eco Environ Science August , 3 (4), 51-55.
World Health Organization. (2019, July 19). “Framework for The Implementation of the Global Vector Control Response in The Who African Region.” Secretariat Report Number AFR/RC69/9.
