Climate Crisis Drives Surge in Yellow Fever and Dengue Cases in South america
The escalating climate crisis is significantly impacting public health, leading to a rise in infectious diseases like yellow fever and dengue fever, especially in South America. A new initiative, the Belém health Action Plan, spearheaded by Brazil‘s government and the World Health Association, aims to bolster countries’ abilities to address these climate-fueled health challenges through improved surveillance, best practices, and capacity building. The plan has secured $300 million in funding from a coalition of 35 philanthropic bodies.
“Humanity can only win this global climate fight if we connect stronger climate actions to people’s top priorities in their daily lives,” stated Simon Stiell,emphasizing the critical link between climate action and public wellbeing. “And there are few higher priorities than our health.”
Though, advocates and health experts warn that current efforts are insufficient to cope with the growing consequences of extreme weather events and rising temperatures. Al Gore, former US vice-President, recently highlighted alarming evidence showing that rising heat is currently killing one person per minute globally, indicating a severe failure by governments to mitigate the direct human harm caused by the climate crisis. “How long are we going to stand by… keep turning the thermostat up so that these sort of events get even worse?” Gore questioned.
Several factors contribute to the expansion of infectious diseases. Deforestation for agriculture and housing brings humans into closer contact with animals carrying zoonotic diseases. Globalization and the adaptability of disease vectors, like mosquitoes and bacteria, also play a significant role.
“And whether it’s bacteria or viruses, they transmit, they’re just smarter than humans in that case as they’re more adapted, and they will adapt to survive. We are much too slow. We certainly no what we need to do about climate change, but we’re not doing anything,” explained Maria guevara, international medical secretary of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), at the Belem gathering.
Guevara stressed the need for increased support to countries experiencing disease outbreaks exacerbated by extreme weather. Médecins Sans Frontières has responded to yellow fever outbreaks in Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo following severe droughts and floods, even facing logistical challenges in distributing free vaccines in a country like Brazil.
In Brazil, experts are observing a concerning trend. Rachel Vicente, an expert at the health sciences center at Brazil’s Federal University of Espírito Santo, noted, “We’ve had huge outbreaks of dengue and an increase in yellow fever even outside of the Amazon region because of lots of rain and high temperatures, which makes the mosquitoes bite more and affects the reproduction of virus in the mosquitoes.”
Increased proximity to mosquito breeding sites, particularly in urban areas, is compounding the problem. Vicente added, “People are living near more breeding sites, too, especially in urban areas of Brazil. It’s a perfect storm and it’s not just a problem of tropical areas any more, we’ve had outbreaks in Europe because it is getting warmer there and is becoming easier for the vector.”
Experts emphasize the urgent need for global collaboration and proactive planning. “we all need to collaborate more on resilience as all countries will need to prepare for this now, not just some of them,” Vicente concluded.
