ABSTRACT
Climate change has been described as the biggest public health challenge of the twenty-first century. The direct and indirect impacts on human health are far-reaching, with India expected to be amongst the worst of the countries affected. Acute climatic events such as droughts, heatwaves, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and floods can cause exacerbation of acute infections, greater spread of vector-borne diseases, nutritional disorders stemming from impacts on agricultural production and food insecurity, and worsening of cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses. The climate-induced changing pattern of vector biology and transmission windows has caused the spread of vector-borne diseases such as malaria, pathogens of human and animal faecal origin include several viruses, bacteria and protozoa, dengue, chikungunya and Japanese Encephalitis in hitherto unaffected regions. Access to clean drinking water and sanitation can also be seriously impacted following acute climatic events such as floods, storms and hurricanes. The combination of warmer temperatures and increasing rainfall favours the spread of temperature-sensitive pathogens through water supply. Air pollution is intricately linked to climate change, with increasing temperatures causing a rise in levels of ozone – a prominent greenhouse gas. This chapter will describe the spectrum of health effects of changing climate.
