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Infectious diseases will increase due to climate change

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is warning Tuesday against the consequences of global warming, saying the situation is “quite alarming.”

Climate change will eventually kill people by making infectious diseases thrive, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said on Tuesday. In 2022, the Fund witnessed the “escalating impact” of climate change on health, warned its executive director Peter Sand.

While the rise in malaria has so far been driven by the increasing frequency and devastation of tropical storms, “with the floods in Pakistan, they have taken on a whole new dimension,” he said.

“The mechanism by which climate change will eventually kill people is its impact on infectious diseases,” Peter Sands said, noting that parts of Africa that were unaffected by malaria are now becoming a risk, as as temperatures rise and allow mosquitoes to thrive, especially at higher altitudes.

However, the population of these regions will not be immunized, hence the risk of a higher mortality rate.

“It’s quite alarming,” Peter Sands said during a briefing with the UN correspondents’ association.

“Not as unprepared as before”

Other threats include the spread of tuberculosis among the growing number of displaced people around the world, he explained.

“The more we see population changes due to climate change, the more I think it will result in conditions that make this disease at least more likely.”

Peter Sands also indicated that food insecurity would make people more vulnerable to disease. Asked if the world is better prepared for the next pandemic than for Covid-19, he answered in the affirmative, but qualified. “That doesn’t mean we’re well prepared: we’re just not as badly prepared as before.”

Author: GA with AFP
Source: BFM TV

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