Abstract
Background: Water-related, including waterborne, diseases remain important sources of morbidity and mortality worldwide, but particularly in developing countries. The potential for changes in disease associated with predicted anthropogenic climate changes make water-related diseases a target for prevention. Methods: We provide an overview of evidence on potential future changes in water-related disease associated with climate change. Results: A number of pathogens are likely to present risks to public health, including cholera, typhoid, dysentery, leptospirosis, diarrhoeal diseases and harmful algal blooms (HABS). The risks are greatest where the climate effects drive population movements, conflict and disruption, and where drinking water supply infrastructure is poor. The quality of evidence for water-related disease has been documented. Conclusions: We highlight the need to maintain and develop timely surveillance and rapid epidemiological responses to outbreaks and emergence of new waterborne pathogens in all countries. While the main burden of waterborne diseases is in developing countries, there needs to be both technical and financial mechanisms to ensure adequate quantities of good quality water, sewage disposal and hygiene for all. This will be essential in preventing excess morbidity and mortality in areas that will suffer from substantial changes in climate in the future.
Highlights
The effect of human activity on observed changes to the climate system over recent decades is widely acknowledged and is a global cause for concern
A Systematic review (SR) was used to examine the risks of endemic cryptosporidiosis, and found increased risk associated with the unsafe use of water [140]
There have been a number of previous reviews and publications highlighting potential impacts of climate change and water-related illness in water-related or waterborne disease [37,38,117,172,173,174,175,176,177,178,179,180,181,182]
Summary
The effect of human activity on observed changes to the climate system over recent decades is widely acknowledged and is a global cause for concern. Due to the lifetime of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the timescales associated with ocean warming, even if global CO2 emissions were curtailed immediately, the effects on the earth’s climate, including increasing temperatures and sea level rise would continue for a number of decades before starting to plateau [2] This should be seen as a general call to action to reduce emissions as soon as possible, given that the impacts are likely to extend beyond current conditions and there are indications that economic investment will be likely to reduce costs later [5]. While the approach has generally been to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, the reductions are likely to be slow and work on adaptation strategies to deal with the climate change associated with overall increases in temperature is being undertaken
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