Effect of Climate Change on Health
Modified pattern of disease-climate relationship:
- Outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases no longer follow predicted patterns in terms of periodicity.
- Throughout the year, dengue fever occurs in two to three peaks.
- Cycles of disease transmission are disrupted by variations in humidity, precipitation, and temperature.
- They change where the parasite’s vectors and animal hosts are distributed.
- Heat modifies the virulence and infectivity of pathogens by interfering with their genetic structure.
Result for India:
- In a few States, the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) was launched in 2007.
- It last reported 1,714 occurrences in 2017. In 2008, it recorded 553 outbreaks.
- It was phased out in favour of the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP), a web-enabled, nearly real-time electronic information system.
- Compared to IDSP 13, it added 20 more illness conditions.
- It might give its users disaggregated data.
- The programme has not lived up to promises, despite enabling real-time tracking of potential disease epidemics.
- Climate change would exacerbate India’s dual morbidity burden from non-communicable and communicable diseases.
Climate change’s effects on health:
- Health is directly impacted by climate change, which increases illness and mortality.
- It impacts diet, shortens workdays, and heightens stress brought on by the weather.
- A 2°C increase in global temperature would render many areas of India uninhabitable.
- Extreme heat, cyclones, and floods are examples of climate crises that are predicted to happen more frequently.
- These will exacerbate health issues and interfere with livelihoods and food security.
- It might promote the development of vectors like ticks, sandflies, and mosquitoes and alter the seasonality of infection by altering their life cycle.
- Additionally, it might make it easier for illnesses and vectors to spread to formerly uninhabited areas—like the Himalayan States, where mosquitoes are found.
- Additionally, heat modifies a pathogen’s pathogenicity.
- Vulnerability to illnesses is increased by decreased food and water availability as well as decreased food nutritional content.
- Floods are a common trigger for epidemics, but prolonged warm weather also encourages the growth of food- and water-borne infections and illnesses.
- Kidney damage is on the rise in India as a result of uncontrolled diabetes. It can be caused by heat, physical strain, and dehydration—all of which are frequent conditions for labourers.
- Increased and prolonged exposure to air pollution aggravates chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.
- During a heat wave, the chance of dying from lung disease rises by 8–8.2%.
- Every 1% increase in temperature above 29°C will result in an 8% increase in hospitalisation rates.
- Climate emergencies are usually accompanied by depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, which are made worse by the stress caused by the weather shift.
Influence on the process of urbanisation:
- Unplanned urbanisation is the growth of urban areas without the interspersion of parks and greenery.
- dotted with heat-retaining structures and asphalt roads that obstruct air circulation.
- Because of the urban heat island effect, they are most negatively impacted by climate change.
- Particularly at night, urban areas are warmer than the nearby rural areas.
- The already fragile urban primary health system is increasingly burdened by climate change in addition to the negative consequences of air pollution.
- urban design that is hostile to exercise.
- stress from the workplace and culture.
Direction of Travel:
- Assessing the burden and comprehending the direct and indirect ways that climate change affects health are the first steps in any mitigation attempt.
- The health information systems are not currently changed to collect this information.
- Improved urban planning, increased green space, water conservation, and public health initiatives will have considerably greater advantages for health and many health-related determinants.
- Global, regional, and local action are required to combat climate change.
- The best location for intervention will be determined by the pathways and effects of climate change.
- India must acknowledge that there is a problem with climate change and that it can and should be addressed in terms of its effects on health.
- Researchers in this field must develop potential courses of action for policy.
- The decision to take action on the research-generated policy alternatives rests with the federal, state, and local governments.
- Meaningful change is likely to occur when the three streams of problematization, policy choices, and political decision-making combine.
