Upload
alexina-young
View
218
Download
1
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Global Warming and Public Health
Robert M. Levin, MDHealth Officer
Ventura CountyApril 7, 2008
Public Health Impacts of Global Warming
• Heat waves and deaths from hyperthermia• Fresh water shortages (due to combined effects of global
warming, overpopulation and water pollution) with wars fought over fresh water
• Air pollution related to greenhouse gases (increased disease and death due to heart attack, stroke, asthma, emphysema, lung cancer, allergy)
• Ozone depletion leading to increased cataracts, melanoma• Extreme weather events (floods and storms)• Water-borne and food-borne diseases (toxic algal blooms like red
tide, survival of viral pathogens leading to shellfish poisoning, cholera)
• Vector-borne and rodent-borne diseases (mosquitoes, ticks, rodents)
• Elevated seas levels (population exodus, aquifers threatened in San Francisco and New Orleans)
• Crop failures and famine• Economic and political stress may damage public health
infrastructure
Will global warming by itself change the boundaries of the diseases we
see?Malaria
The Little Ice Age
• Hunters in the Snow by the Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel February, 1565
Vector-borne Disease
• Disease in humans carried from another warm-blooded animal by an insect such as a mosquito, tick or sandfly.
Infectious Diseases Potentially Infectious Diseases Potentially Spread by Global WarmingSpread by Global Warming
Dengue feverDengue fever MalariaMalaria Yellow feverYellow fever Chickungunya feverChickungunya fever Epidemic polyarthritisEpidemic polyarthritis West Nile feverWest Nile fever St. Louis encephalitisSt. Louis encephalitis Lyme diseaseLyme disease EhrlichiosisEhrlichiosis PlaguePlague LoaiasisLoaiasis
LeishmaniasisLeishmaniasis Kyasanur Forest diseaseKyasanur Forest disease La Crosse encephalitisLa Crosse encephalitis Eastern equine Eastern equine
encephalitisencephalitis Japanese encephalitisJapanese encephalitis OropoucheOropouche Western equine Western equine
encephalitisencephalitis Venezuelan equine Venezuelan equine
encephalitisencephalitis OnchocerciasisOnchocerciasis
Example: The Complexity of Disease Example: The Complexity of Disease Spread - Dengue FeverSpread - Dengue Fever
Vast difference in the amount of Dengue in Vast difference in the amount of Dengue in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico and Laredo, TexasNuevo Laredo, Mexico and Laredo, Texas
Dengue Fever is called “breakbone fever”Dengue Fever is called “breakbone fever” Americans stay indoors and have air Americans stay indoors and have air
conditioningconditioning Public places in Mexico are not likely to be Public places in Mexico are not likely to be
air conditioned and are open to the air conditioned and are open to the elementselements
The Human ResponseThe Human Response
• HousingHousing
• Air conditioningAir conditioning
• Pesticides in the environmentPesticides in the environment
• Bug spray on peopleBug spray on people
• DrainageDrainage
• ImmunizationsImmunizations
• NettingNetting
• Release predator insects and sterile matesRelease predator insects and sterile mates
Leishmaniasis
• Skin lesion like bump or ulcer
• Heals spontaneously or smolders for years
• Destructive changes in nose or throat
• Disfiguring• Other form is visceral
leishmaniasis• Fever, anemia, weakness,
emaciation, enlarged liver, spleen, death
Leishmaniaisis Transmission
Leishmaniasis
Leishmaniasis in Germany
Global Warming and Public Health