Climate Change

Each year, April 22 is recognized as Earth Day — an observance held to highlight support and raise awareness for environmental protection.

In a new study, researchers reported that higher ambient temperatures as observed in Kuwait may be associated with higher CVD mortality.

Last year, researchers estimated that 60% of the global population will be at risk for dengue by 2080, citing climate change as a potential factor in the disease’s spread. We asked Duane J. Gubler, ScD, FAAAS, FIDSA, FASTMH, chair of the Global Dengue & Aedes-Transmitted Diseases Consortium and emeritus professor of emerging infectious diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, if climate change impacts the spread and transmission of dengue.

According to WHO, Earth has warmed approximately 0.85°C over the last 130 years — with each of the past 3 decades being successively warmer than any preceding decade since 1850. It will warm more than 3°C this century alone.

An independent joint commission assembled by WHO, UNICEF and The Lancet has called for immediate action to protect the health of children against the rapidly changing climate and guard them against predatory marketing practices.

Although the link between climate change and health is “becoming increasingly clear,” the medical community is generally unaware of how much climate change is impacting patients today, experts told Healio Primary Care.

Rising temperatures, declining crop yields, air pollution and other adverse environmental outcomes of climate change pose a threat to the long-term health of children, according to The Lancet’s annual update on health and climate change.

ATLANTA — Atmospheric changes and associated environmental stressors within 10 days of a clinic visit were linked to organ-specific lupus flares among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, according to a presentation at the 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting.

As of Oct. 22, 2019, there have been 35 confirmed cases of eastern equine encephalitis this year — a significant increase from the average of seven reported cases per year.

Just when you think it cannot become worse, it does.