Climate Change

Weighted risk analysis of climate change impacts on infectious disease risks in Europe

Lyme borreliosis is the highest for both climate change risk and potential severity of consequence

Monitoring EU Emerging Infectious Disease Risk Due to Climate Change
Elisabet Lindgren, Yvonne Andersson, Jonathan E. Suk, Bertrand Sudre, Jan C. Semenza

Science, 27 Apr 2012
Vol 336, Issue 6080, pp. 418-419
DOI: 10.1126/science.121573
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1215735

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Permission © American Association for the Advancement of Science

This article shows a tick as example for vector-borne diseases

Article quote :
Most climate-related health impacts are mediated through complex ecological and social processes. For risks associated with transmission vectors and water, for example, rising temperatures and changes in precipitation pattern alter the viable distribution of disease vectors such as mosquitoes carrying dengue or malaria.

Health and climate change: policy responses to protect public health
Nick Watts, W Neil Adger, Paolo Agnolucci, Jason Blackstock, Peter Byass, Wenjia Cai, Sarah Chaytor, Tim Colbourn, Mat Collins, Adam Cooper,
Peter M Cox, Joanna Depledge, Paul Drummond, Paul Ekins, Victor Galaz, Delia Grace, Hilary Graham, Michael Grubb, Andy Haines, Ian Hamilton,
Alasdair Hunter, Xujia Jiang, Moxuan Li, Ilan Kelman, Lu Liang, Melissa Lott, Robert Lowe, Yong Luo, Georgina Mace, Mark Maslin, Maria Nilsson,
Tadj Oreszczyn, Steve Pye, Tara Quinn, My Svensdotter, Sergey Venevsky, Koko Warner, Bing Xu, Jun Yang, Yongyuan Yin, Chaoqing Yu,
Qiang Zhang, Peng Gong, Hugh Montgomery, Anthony Costello

The Lancet Commissions
www.thelancet.com Vol 386 November 7, 2015
Lancet 2015; 386: 1861–914
Published Online June 23, 2015
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)60854-6/abstract

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Permission © The Lancet Group

In 1966 adopted by

the United Nations General Assembly

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)

Article 12 states :

1. the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
2. steps to be taken by States for full realization include those necessary for:
reduction of stillbirth-rate and infant mortality; 
healthy development of the child;
improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene;
prevention, treatment and control of diseases;
creation of conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness.

https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-economic-social-and-cultural-rights#article-12

This webpage does not mention Lyme disease

Climate Action Fast Facts

Quote:
Health
Climate change is the single biggest health threat facing humanity. The impacts are already harming health through air pollution, disease, extreme weather events, forced displacement, food insecurity and pressures on mental health. Every year, environmental factors take the lives of around 13 million people.
2. Meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement could save about a million lives a year worldwide by 2050 through reductions in air pollution alone. Avoiding the worst climate impacts could help prevent 250,000 additional climate-related deaths per year from 2030 to 2050, mainly from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress.

https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/key-findings

In-Depth Analysis for the European Parliament

Requested by the Public Health (SANT) Subcommittee

Environmental determinants of health, including those caused by climate change

Paltriguera, L., Beamud, F., Müller, M., Pavlou, P., Tertre, L., Van Den Bos, S., Zamparutti, T., and Buonsante, V.

2024

Publication for the Subcommittee on Public Health, Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies, European Parliament, Luxembourg.

2.3. How environmental determinants of health affect disadvantaged communities
2.3.4. Infectious and other diseases
The changing climate in Europe promotes ideal conditions for waterborne, foodborne, and vector-borne diseases. Semenza and Paz (2021) state that changing conditions facilitate disease outbreaks such as chikungunya, dengue and West Nile fever from mosquitoes, and Lyme disease and encephalitis from ticks. Longer and hotter summers have also increased food-borne diseases (Semenza and Paz, 2021). Semenza and Ko (2023) highlighted that climate hazards such as increased ambient temperature, extreme precipitation (including floods), increased drought, and sea-level rise drive climate-sensitive pathways for waterborne diseases.

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2024/754209/IPOL_STU%282024%29754209_EN.pdf

EU Reference Laboratories designated

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/892 of 22 March 2024 designating European Union reference laboratories for certain specific areas of public health

The European Commission has designated
EU Reference Laboratories for public health on high risk emerging and zoonotic bacterial pathogens,
including Lyme disease.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L_202400892