Climate Change and Pandemics: Confronting the Defining Health Challenges of 21st Century

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🔬研究者:気候変動と健康影響の関連性を俯瞰するレビューとして有用。

🏛政策担当者:公衆衛生と気候変動の連携の重要性を認識するための背景資料。

Climate change to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns is today one of the biggest global threats.[1,2] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change back in 2007 had issued a warning that the climate is getting affected for worse and it is largely irreversible.[3] Not long since that warning on the climate change, the glaciers in the Himalayas are melting at a fast pace, leading to the formation of glacial lakes which may burst causing massive damage downstream. The extreme weather events such as heat waves, mega forest fires, drought, torrential rainfall and floods are occurring in increasing frequency and intensity in different parts of the world. Closer home, cloud burst, flash floods and landslides have recently claimed many lives and property in states of Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh.[4,5] Climate change has been documented since 1950s but now happening at a faster pace. Eight years since the 2015 Paris Agreement which set the goal of temperature rise of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels,[6] the countries are not still doing enough to curb greenhouse gas emissions. According to the World Meteorology Organization, the average temperature increase during 2023 has already reached 1.15°.[7] In fact, July 2023 was the hottest month and 2023 the warmest year ever on record prompting the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres to remark that ‘the Era of global warming has ended. The era of global boiling has arrived’.[8] The climate change is a major threat to human health.[9] By effecting the physical environment as well as the socioeconomic conditions and systems, it impacts health both directly and indirectly increasing the risk of deaths, non-communicable diseases, the emergence and spread of infectious diseases and perpetuating health vulnerabilities. The increasingly frequent extreme weather events lead to the disruption of food and water systems, thereby increasing in various diseases, as well as mental health disorders. By disturbing the ecology and natural habitats, human activities and climate change inter alia drive wild animals closer to populated areas, creating opportunities for pathogens to move or ‘cross over’ from animals to humans.[10] It increases the risk of emergence of new and emerging infections of zoonotic nature as well as spread of infectious diseases including water-borne diarrhoeal diseases and vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue and West Nile fever. With global warming, the vectors responsible for mosquito-borne diseases are expanding geographically to newer areas at higher altitudes and infecting more people. In warmer climatic conditions, they breed faster, take blood meal more frequently and mature at a faster rate. Over the past decade, dengue has been reported from countries such as Bhutan, and in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India, where it has never been reported before.[11] Studies using remote sensing data show a close association between the rise in sea surface temperature with cholera occurrence in Bangladesh.[12] Apart from infectious diseases, the incidence of chronic non-communicable diseases or lifestyle diseases and their risk factors are also likely to continue to surge in continuing high carbon emissions.[13,14] The sudden and acute exposure to extreme heat conditions can lead to heat stroke, acute kidney failures and death. Chronic exposure, on the other hand, can exacerbate cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, kidney disorders and respiratory conditions.[15] Studies in India have documented increased hospital emergency room admissions, especially of children during winter months due to air pollution[16] and a similar phenomenon seen recently in the United States following exposure to wildfires.[17] The climate change is undermining many of the social determinants for health, such as income, nutrition and access to healthcare. Increase in the land and sea temperatures can lead to drought conditions and scarcity of water for irrigation purposes, thereby depleting food production and supplies, already fragile global food security and contributing to population displacement. Lack of freshwater availability and accessibility further enhance the risk of water- and food-borne diseases. Climate change thus poses a serious threat to health, nutrition, education and the very survival and future of children as they are particularly vulnerable to the risk of these diseases.[18] These public health emergencies when they occur severely impact availability and access to health services such as medicines and life saving measures and adversely affect implementation of national programmes.[19,20] What can be Done The curbing of carbon emissions can help prevent or significantly reduce the health impact of climate change. While Western countries and China are historically responsible for burning fossil fuel, causing increase in atmospheric temperature and climate change, developing countries that contributed the least to climate change are ironically being disproportionately affected by it.[21] Data show that while 55% of carbon emissions are today caused by US, China and Europe, compared to only 3.8% by all countries of Africa.[22] Indeed, climate change and pandemics constitute defining health challenges of 21st century. Both are linked with human behaviours and tend to disproportionately affect the poor and marginalised sections who generally lack the resources to respond effectively. To prevent, detect and respond to these and others public health challenges, including those resulting from climate change, a collective and shared multisectoral collaboration is imperative. Investing in strengthening surveillance and early warning systems to track and monitor the disease incidence and trends is critical for generating evidence for public health policy and public health action.[23] Together with research and monitoring evaluation, surveillance constitutes as the main sources of data for this purpose. A pandemic accord presently under negotiation at the global level is expected to strengthen disease prevention, detection and rapid response capacities in all countries and address inequity in access to life-saving countermeasures such as vaccines and medicines. At the heart of multisectoral collaboration, the crucial role health sector can play by providing leadership on technical and policy matters, in providing oversight, and as needed building capacity of other stakeholders. In this regard, ensuring adequate number of human resources or public health workforce is of fundamental importance. Without a strong public health system and skilled workforce, the Sustainable Development Goals can neither be achieved nor the national policy initiatives implemented effectively. Investing in public health is, therefore, not only a programmatic but also an ethical imperative![24] Many countries are doing primary health care (PHC) reform and revamping, such as health and wellness centres in India.[25] The WHO and UNICEF have brought a new operational framework on PHC.[26] Such renewed attention on PHC and related reform in multiple countries should be used to reach to the community on raising awareness and staking actions to tackle the challenge of climate change. Finally, climate change and its health impacts threaten progress towards the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Accelerated action through an inter-disciplinary and multisectoral response can go a long way in not only reducing the risk of climate change and impacts associated with it but also in achieving ultimately the goal of health and well-being for all, while leaving no one behind.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.4103/pmrr.pmrr_71_23first seen 2026-08-02 18:48:11