title: Climate change and health: global to local influences on disease risk.
abstract: The World Health Organization has concluded that the climatic changes that have occurred since the mid 1970s could already be causing annually over 150,000 deaths and five million disability-adjusted life-years (DALY), mainly in developing countries. The less developed countries are, ironically, those least responsible for causing global warming. Many health outcomes and diseases are sensitive to climate, including: heat-related mortality or morbidity; air pollution-related illnesses; infectious diseases, particularly those transmitted, indirectly, via water or by insect or rodent vectors; and refugee health issues linked to forced population migration. Yet, changing landscapes can significantly affect local weather more acutely than long-term climate change. Land-cover change can influence micro-climatic conditions, including temperature, evapo-transpiration and surface run-off, that are key determinants in the emergence of many infectious diseases. To improve risk assessment and risk management of these synergistic processes (climate and land-use change), more collaborative efforts in research, training and policy-decision support, across the fields of health, environment, sociology and economics, are required.
authors.affiliation: Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, SAGE, the Nelson Institute and Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin, 1710 University Avenue, Madison, 53726, USA. patz@wisc.edu
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Patz
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Olson
mesh_terms: D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission; D003906:Developing Countries; D004190:Disasters / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014943:Global Health; D017752:Greenhouse Effect; D006801:Humans; D018570:Risk Assessment