Vol. 13 No. 2 (2020): Climate Change & Health
Articles

Melting Ice and Malaria: The Tip of the Climate Change Iceberg

Catherine Dominic
Queen Mary's University of London, UK
Bio
cdc-malaria-map

Published 2020-04-18

Keywords

  • melting ice,
  • climate change,
  • malaria

How to Cite

Dominic, C. (2020). Melting Ice and Malaria: The Tip of the Climate Change Iceberg. Sushruta Journal of Health Policy & Opinion, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.38192/13.2.5

Abstract

A line from the WHO report on climate change struck me particularly – ‘Roman aristocrats retreated to hill resorts each summer to avoid malaria’. Hoping to pursue a career in Tropical Medicine and Global Health, the climate crisis is one of my primary concerns for the future of global health – will there come a time when we spend our summer holidays hiding in the Pennines from infections at ground level? Being a medical student in London during the climate strikes it was inspiring to see people protest government inaction around preventing climate change - it is certain that climate change is having a measurable impact on global health and that it is time that we encourage awareness and act against it.

References

  1. Who.int. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.who.int/globalchange/climate/en/chapter6.pdf [Accessed 24 Sep. 2019].
  2. Cdc.gov. (2019). Climate change and Public Health - Health Effects - Mental Health and Stress-Related Disorders | CDC. [online] Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/climateandhealth/effects/mental_health_disorders.htm [Accessed 24 Sep. 2019].
  3. Holden, E. (2019). Climate Change Is Having Widespread Health Impacts. [online] Scientific American. Available at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-is-having-widespread-health-impacts/ [Accessed 24 Sep. 2019].
  4. Health2016.globalchange.gov. (2019). The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment. [online] Available at: https://health2016.globalchange.gov/ [Accessed 24 Sep. 2019].
  5. 19january2017snapshot.epa.gov. (2019). Climate Impacts on Human Health | Climate Change Impacts | US EPA. [online] Available at: https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-human-health_.html [Accessed 24 Sep. 2019].
  6. Zhou, X., Yang, K., Yang, G., Wu, X., Kristensen, T., Bergquist, R. and Utzinger, J. (2009). Potential impact of, and adaptation to, climate change influence on schistosomiasis transmission in China – a) experiences from China. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 6(14), p.142002.