Global warming will increase deaths and heat-related diseases: study – Health



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Climate change is making more and more people in the world vulnerable to heat exposure, making them more vulnerable to heart and kidney disease, heat stress and other related mortality factors. to heat, scientists warned Wednesday.

The effects of global warming seem particularly severe for urban and aging populations and people with chronic diseases. And Europe and the eastern Mediterranean are more vulnerable than Africa and Southeast Asia because of the large number of elderly people living in densely populated cities, the researchers said in a report. analysis published in the medical journal The Lancet.

"Trends in the impacts of climate change, exposures, and vulnerabilities point to an unacceptable risk to health, now and in the future," said Hilary Graham, a professor at York University in Great Britain, who led works.

The Lancet countdown on health and climate change has mobilized the work of 27 academic institutions in areas ranging from health to engineering, through ecology, as well as expertise United Nations and intergovernmental agencies worldwide.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), climate change is affecting many factors affecting health, including the quality of air and water, food and water. shelters. He estimates that between 2030 and 2050, climate change could cause an additional 250,000 deaths a year due to malnutrition, diarrhea, malaria and heat stress.

Read also: Millions of people at risk of malnutrition as CO2 levels rise: study

The report revealed that in 2017, some 157 million vulnerable people were exposed to heatwaves. Some 153 billion hours of work were lost last year due to heat exposure, the statement said.

He also revealed that slight changes in temperature and precipitation can cause major changes in the transmission of certain infectious diseases transmitted by water and mosquitoes, such as cholera, malaria and dengue fever.

Howard Frumkin, Wellcome Trust's Climate and Health Specialist, who partially funded the work, said the findings were clear.

"Climate change has a direct impact on our health, for example causing wildfires, crop failures, infectious diseases and lives around the world," he said. He urged all sectors to act faster to fight climate change. reduce the potentially devastating impact on our planet and our health.

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