2023-09-26. AN UNHEALTHY CLIMATE

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https://www.science.org/content/article/heat-and-disease-will-exact-heavy-toll-climate-warms

Collection of articles in Science. 

Excerpt: ...the stories in this special package will explore the threats, and how we can minimize them. Vector-borne diseases are a special worry. A warmer climate favors the mosquito that spreads dengue and may already be fueling a worldwide surge in the debilitating disease. Warming may also have enabled malaria-carrying mosquitoes to flourish in Africa’s cooler highlands and ticks that carry Lyme disease to advance northward. Migratory birds, which ferry cargoes of pathogens such as West Nile virus and influenza across continents, are changing the timing and routes of their journeys, with consequences that have yet to emerge. Then there are the direct effects of heat on the human body. The worsening toll of heat waves is unmistakable, with thousands dying every summer, but researchers are also discerning subtler impacts. Among the most vulnerable to extreme heat are pregnant people and their fetuses. Here are the articles:

  • FEELING THE HEAT (Warming is making many places more suitable for the dengue-carrying mosquito Aedes aegypti. By FERNANDO DA CUNHA)
  • FLIGHT RISKS (Migratory birds efficiently ferry pathogens around the world. As a warming climate reshapes their journeys, infectious disease experts are on guard for new threats to humans)
  • LURKING IN THE DEEP FREEZE? (Climate change may release dangerous pathogens frozen for centuries in Arctic permafrost, By JON COHEN)
  • EXPECTING EXTREMES (Intense heat is a particular hazard in pregnancy. New studies are probing why. By MEREDITH WADMAN)

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