Climate change is increasing the spread of many pathogens. A team of researchers from the University of Hawaii concludes in a review that 58 percent of the diseases caused by pathogens can be made worse by climate change. This happens through the warming itself, but also through extreme weather phenomena such as droughts, floods or heat waves. The study in the journal “Nature Climate Change” was based on a list of 375 diseases worldwide that are caused by pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, plant pollen or fungi.
In their literature research, the researchers found over 1000 individual pathways, each of which promoted a pathogen through climate change. For example, extreme weather conditions can weaken the human immune system through stress or malnutrition and increase susceptibility to infections. Droughts, in turn, ensure that humans and animals live together in a smaller space, which increases the risk of zoonoses, to name just a few examples.
Experts are particularly concerned about pathogens that are transmitted by vectors such as mosquitoes and ticks. “We found over 100 diseases that were amplified by this transmission path,” said co-author Tristan McKenzie from the University of Hawaii when asked by the dpa.
Tropical diseases could soon appear in other regions of the world
The President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, had previously called for exotic diseases to be considered here in Germany. “Climate change is leading to an expansion of the habitats for mosquitoes and ticks in Germany,” Wieler told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “Many mosquito and tick species can transmit viral, bacterial and parasitic pathogens,” says Wieler. These could be zika or dengue viruses, for example. “It is also possible that malaria, which is caused by Plasmodium, will return.” It is therefore an important concern of the RKI to sensitize the medical profession to these diseases.