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Malaria and Global Warming

When you think of global warming and the problems it can cause, rising sea levels, fiercer hurricanes and severe heat waves may come to mind. But perhaps one of the deadliest results of a warmer planet is a disease people give little, if any, thought to: Malaria.

Malaria, still deadly in parts of Africa and South America, is expected to reach record proportions as the planet warms and disease-carrying mosquitoes begin to thrive in previously out-of-reach altitudes. The warmer and wetter climes will not only allow them to reach new communities, but the people living in those areas will be more susceptible to disease because they won’t have developed the appropriate immunities.

Warmer climates will also help malarial parasites to hatch quicker, meaning more generations of the bugs will grow. Countries in Africa and South America will be particularly susceptible to epidemics, because of the lack of adequately funded health care systems, but even nations such as Canada are concerned that warmer temperatures will deliver diseases previously unknown to them. For example, West Nile virus may spread faster and farther north as a result of global warming.

For more information about this issue, click here.

To learn what you can do to help slow global warming, please visit www.fightglobalwarming.com.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org