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Climate Change and Transmissible Diseases

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Climate Change and Health Hazards

Part of the book series: Climate Change Management ((CCM))

Abstract

Infectious diseases may be the result of either pathogen increasing frequency of transmission within a given population or expansion of pathogen host range alongside with the increasing of its geographical distribution. Vector transmitted new pathogens may emerge driven by environmental factors and hazards such as droughts, floods, wildfires, or heatwaves, which are foreseen to become more frequent due to climate change. Environmental factors and hazards may be the cause in the change of vectors’ geographical distribution or its increase within a particular geographical area. Infectious agents that may cross species and environmental barriers are climate sensitive therefore, its study is important.

Human health is tightly connected to the health of animals and the environment. Animal feed, human nutrition, animal and human health are closely linked with water contamination, air pollution and the loss of biodiversity. The way climate change, as well as other health determinants, affects host defences and viral pathogenesis deserves scientific research and governments and stakeholders’ attention to support preparedness plans and capacity of health systems to face emergence infection diseases.

This chapter presents a state-of-the-art of the interactions of climate change effects on transmissible diseases based on (1) authors previous experience and knowledge on the subjects hereby addressed; (2) information from several institutional sources such as the World Health Organization, the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations Economic and Social Council, the European Commission of the European Union and The Lancet Countdown; and (3) an oriented search for scientific publications using the criteria described below. Authors analysed publications in Web of Science and PubMed databases choosing title/abstract/keywords screening (and full-text when necessary) and using the keywords: “Climate changes”; “Infectious diseases”, “SARS-CoV-2”, “Transmissible diseases”. Detailed information was extracted from the selected papers and the institutional sources based on full-text screening.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Engenharia Metalúrgica e de Materiais, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Universidade do Porto, Rua Roberto Frias, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal

    Maria Pia de Melo Alvim Ferraz Tavares

  2. Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade do Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen 208, 4200-135, Porto, Portugal

    Maria Pia de Melo Alvim Ferraz Tavares

  3. UFP Energy, Environment and Health Research Unit (FP-ENAS), University Fernando Pessoa, Praça Nove de Abril, 349, 4249-004, Porto, Portugal

    Gisela Marta Teixeira de Sousa Oliveira

  4. i3S, Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde da Universidade do Porto, R. Alfredo Allen 208, 4200-135, Porto, Portugal

    Maria Pia de Melo Alvim Ferraz Tavares

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  1. Maria Pia de Melo Alvim Ferraz Tavares
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  2. Gisela Marta Teixeira de Sousa Oliveira
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Correspondence to Maria Pia de Melo Alvim Ferraz Tavares .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. Centre for Functional Ecology - Science for People & the Planet (CFE), TERRA Associate Laboratory, Department of Life Sciences (DCV), University of Coimbra (UC), Coimbra, Portugal

    Diogo Guedes Vidal

  3. UFP Energy, Environment and Health Research Unit (FP-ENAS), University Fernando Pessoa (UFP), Porto, Portugal

    Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis

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Ferraz Tavares, M., Oliveira, G. (2023). Climate Change and Transmissible Diseases. In: Leal Filho, W., Vidal, D.G., Dinis, M.A.P. (eds) Climate Change and Health Hazards. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26592-1_6

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