Week 4 : Climate Change and Health

Question 1

What are the direct health impacts of heat with a core body temperature over 38 degrees Celsius?

Answer 1

Heat exhaustion and reduced mental and physical capacity.

Question 2

What are the direct health impacts of heat with a core body temperature over 39 degrees Celsius?

Answer 2

Heat stroke and unconsciousness.

Question 3

What are the direct health impacts of heat with a core body temperature over 42 degrees Celsius?

Answer 3

Even for a short time can result in death.

Question 4

Who is most at risk of climate change?

Answer 4

• Children and elderly people
• People with pre-existing medical conditions
• Manual workers, farmers etc

Question 5

How do floods and storms affect health?

Answer 5

• Drowning, injuries and hypothermia
• Contaminated water supplies
• Increased risk of water-borne, food-borne and vector-borne diseases
• Damage to homes and health services (as well as other infrastructure), difficulties accessing care
• MENTAL HEALTH impacts

Question 6

Give examples of how food-borne and water-borne diseases are changed through climate change.

Answer 6

• Risk of infection by Vibrio species is affected by temperature & precipitation
• Campylobacter, Salmonella and enteric viruses can replicate faster at warmer temperatures

Question 7

How does climate change affect nutrition?

Answer 7

• Rising temperatures and variable rainfall are likely to affect both quality and quantity of food production
• Mental health impacts on farming communities

Question 8

How does desertification and drought affect disease?

Answer 8

• When drinking water sources becomes scarce, more chance of Guinea worm transmission
• Changes in distribution of rodent reservoirs

Question 9

How does other changes in vegetation affect disease?

Answer 9

• Affects tsetse fly distribution and risk factor
• Affects tick distribution, bacterial and viral tick-borne diseases arise

Question 10

How does hydrological changes affect disease?

Answer 10

• Formation of more brackish water lagunae, extending the breeding or brackish water species
• Changes in riverbeds, affecting tsetse fly ecology

Question 11

How does changed agricultural practices affect disease?

Answer 11

• A wide range of effects on mosquito-borne and snail-borne diseases