Climate change contributes to the spread of water, air, food and vector borne pathogens: Expert

Hyderabad, July 24 (FN Agency) The changing environmental conditions are increasing the suitability for the transmission of many water-borne, air-borne, food-borne, and vector-borne pathogens undermining the efforts of medical scientists and public health organizations to mitigate this threat , said Dr Naresh Purohit, Advisor for National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health (NPCCHH ) here on sunday. Emphasizing the impact of climate change on human health and the ways in which it contributes to the spread of vector-borne communicable diseases, senior Epidemiologist Dr Purohit told UNI here that some of the diseases whose transmissibility has increased due to climate change-related factors include malaria and diseases caused by arboviruses like dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. All these are vector-borne diseases.

He said that the recent global research has shown that climate change affects the environment where pathogen-carrying vectors such as insects, particularly mosquitoes — live, impacting their migration and life cycle patterns. This can lead to the vectors carrying pathogens to different regions than the ones they initially inhabited He averred that climate change can also influence how long pathogen-carrying vectors survive, and it can impact the incubation period of certain viruses through temperature fluctuations. Because of this, he explained, malaria and other transmissible disease are spreading faster and farther around the world. According to recent WHO report rapidly increasing climate change poses a rising threat to mental health and psychosocial well-being, from emotional distress to anxiety, depression, grief, and suicidal behavior. Climate change refers to long-term shifts in weather conditions, which may give rise to many mental health-related problems, he said.

Disaster Psychological Expert Dr Purohit pointed that impact of climate change’s on mental health range from mild stress and sleep disturbances to mental health disorders like anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress, substance use and many others. “lndirect mental health consequences of climate change can occur as a result of damage to the physical health, food and water shortage, conflict, and displacement due to intense climatic changes,” he said . He said that environmental stressors like noises are known to increase cortisol levels which is a stress-related hormone. He also revealed that heat waves have been associated with mood disorders and anxiety. He said that extreme heat events and humidity have been noted to increase hospital admissions for mood and behavioural disorders, including schizophrenia, mania and other psychological and neurological disorders. Noted physician apprehended that, even as we are still navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, more epidemics — or even other pandemics — may soon arise, and climate change will, at least in part, be to blame, he added.