What do dengue fever, West Nile virus, leptospirosis, malaria, cardiovascular problems and lung cancer have in common?
She was climate change responds the professor of Infectious Diseases and Pathology of the School of Medicine at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA) Sotiris Tsiodrasindicating that 2023 was the hottest year on record on earth.
I Greece recording many extreme weather events (Daniel, fires, floods) and as a result that the above diseases are only the “tip of the iceberg” of the existing threats that are also related to the increased number of infections in our country.
«Unfortunately, we see them in 2024 as well temperatures they have recorded record highs with long heat waves of up to 43 degrees Celsius and drought. We have had 14 months of continuous temperature rise of 1.5 degrees higher. Our planet, “our town” is on fire and we are not talking about these problems that will bring the next pandemic faster than we had calculated». He emphasized the professor in the lecture he gave last week, at the Free University of the Municipality of Glyfada, entitled: “Climate change and public health”.
It is indicative that the sea temperature has reached its highest level in the last 66 years. This means that the average sea level rise has increased since the beginning of the 20th century and areas such as the Hamburg, Copenhagen, Antwerp, US east coastrecently hit by another typhoon, in danger of being wiped off the map.
But what do all these changes mean for public health and how do they relate to the next pandemic?
The melting of the ice is already a cause of great concern to scientists, as they fear the possibility reviving viruses that were “sleeping» for millions of years.
«The paleopathogenic viruses scientists worry about the outbreak of the new pandemic. There are still rusty rivers in Alaska containing iron, nickel, cadmium” said Mr. Tsiodras and continued: “Also every year for the last ten years we have imported cases of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes, the tiger mosquitoes , therefore. such as Dengue fever which led to outbreaks in Southern Europe in 2023 and in Greece, cases were imported from patients who had recently traveled to endemic countries“, emphasized Mr. Tsiodras.
According to the professor, the ECDC the alarm is already for Europe. The recorded increase in dengue cases in Europe is 250%: “Of course the big impact has been shown in South America, with Brazil registering a 450% increase and having absorbed all the quantities of vaccines available for the disease produced by a Japanese pharmaceutical company. The solution is already being sought through mosquito factories, with targeted mosquito species that prevent host populations from spreading and transmitting.“, said Mr. Tsiodras, among other things.
THE professor expressed the hope that we will not see the Europe beds with mosquito nets inside hospital wards, a sight never seen before in Brazilian hospitals.
In Greece, everything Cases of Dengue they belonged to people infected in some endemic foreign country. A prerequisite for domestic transmission to occur is the presence of mosquito vector populations (they exist in Greece), an infected traveler bringing the virus into the country, and the possibility of mosquitoes picking up the virus and transmitting it to the healthy. population.
Global warming is turning the oceans into vinegar
OR high temperature effect the way known pathogens develop and spread but new pathogens are also created, megavirusrepresent a major health challenge to the scientific community and health systems.
«The 2023 recorded as the year with the higher temperatures on the planet. Already the average temperature has increased by 2 degrees. Both the warming of the atmosphere and the oceans have changed their role in sustaining the planet. The atmosphere is being enriched with carbon dioxide, and the oceans have absorbed so much energy that it will take 10 years to return to normal temperatures assuming immediate action is taken. Its pH drops and the oceans turn to vinegar. This is a well-known phenomenon ocean acidificationcaused by a decrease in the pH value of seawater due to the absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the Earth’s atmosphere“, said Mr. Tsiodras.
Examples
With the illustrative example of his swimmers Baltic Sea Mr Tsiodras explained the dangers of making vinegar on the oceans: “The pathogens that developed the shellfish (vibriosis) it is food for many species of fish in the sea but also for those that swim, having been involved in many skin infections, gastroenteritis even in sepsis».
Also the Professor explaining their relationship heat wave with the communicable diseases reported in the survey conducted by University of Thessaly which showed the impact of high temperatures on pregnant women and newborns, the latter being underweight or stillborn.
Mr. Tsiodras referred to research data documenting an increased risk of cardiovascular death 50 days after the heat wave: “Eleven million deaths from cardiovascular problems have been recorded in 35 countries as a result of heat alone in recent years».
And the professor concluded that studies which showed that the increase greenery in cities reduces the temperature and therefore mortality from cardiovascular and brain diseases.