Not only fires and floods: this is how the climate crisis intensified the spread of diseases in the world Israel today

A new study carried out at the University of Hawaii that examined the spread of diseases in the world, shows that climate change - such as forest fires, heavy rains and heat waves - causes an overspreading of about half of the viral diseases in the world, including malaria, Zika, dengue fever, West Nile fever, Lyme disease, And Kongonia and even the corona virus.

The researchers found that the climate crisis led to the creation of about 1,000 new routes for the spread of diseases, which they defined as "far beyond humanity's ability to adapt its existence to them in a good way."

In order to illustrate the problem, the researchers cited as an example the spread of fleas, ticks and mosquitoes, since these multiply by heat waves and short bursts of rain that produce lakes or floods, thus spreading diseases such as malaria, Nile fever and more.

"Thank you" to the climate crisis.

Corona test in Dusseldorf, Germany, photo: AP.

Pandora's box

The climate changes cause, among other things, droughts, which leads to a reduction in food, so the ability to eat clean food decreases.

The condition leads to dysentery, typhoid, fever and other diseases.

Also, flooding and displacement of people lead to diseases such as cholera and gastroenteritis, while at the same time the large waves of refugees and the destruction of infrastructure reduce the ability of countries to deal with the various viruses and pests that multiply in these situations.

As part of the study, published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, the researchers scanned 70,000 scientific articles dealing with various diseases, and found that out of 375 infectious diseases, climate change had a negative effect on 218 of them, meaning that their influence around the world was intensified.

In their examination, the researchers reviewed the information on the subject in the last 700 years, and these showed that climate changes have a major impact on the appearance of diseases.

"The climate crisis is opening a Pandora's box of diseases," said Camilo Mora, a geographer at the University of Hawaii who led the study.

According to him, "Because of the greenhouse effect and climate change in the world, there are a lot of triggers that help the manifestation of these diseases. There are diseases out there that are just waiting to be released and we are like someone waving a stick in front of a lion: it is clear that at some point it will wake up and bite us in the butt."

The floods also contribute to the spread of diseases.

Flooding in the city of Karachi in Pakistan, this week, photo: AFP.

There is also good news

It is important to note that not only damage is caused by the greenhouse effect: the changes that are taking place on Earth have caused 16% of viral diseases to recede and appear less than before.

However, researcher Kira Webster, one of the authors of the study, says that "the more we examined the data, the more the research progressed, the more we were fascinated and shocked by the number of diseases that are given an opportunity because of the climate crisis."

The crisis helps them spread diseases.

A mosquito bites a human, photo: Getty Images

According to Mora, one of the diseases that received a big boost from the climate crisis is the corona virus.

That is, the disease probably broke out because disease-carrying bats and other wild animals, which carried dangerous pathogens, came closer to human habitation due to forest fires and floods.

"If there are dangerous diseases out there, toxic pathogens that can harm a person, then the floods, fires and heat make us as humans get closer to these pathogens or they get closer to us," he said.

"This is a shocking finding that we simply do not take seriously enough."

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