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J.Health Sci., 55(6), 865-869, 2009
-Current Topics-
A Problem of Climate Change as Seen by a Pharmaceutical Researcher
The Emerging and Forecasted Effect of Climate Change on Human Health
Ichiro Kurane*
Department of Virology 1, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan
Global warming is an unequivocal phenomenon today. Climate change including global warming has various effects on human health. The direct effects include increase in cases of heat-stroke and in mortality rate among those who have cardiovascular and and/or respiratory diseases. The main indirect effects are on infectious diseases. Vector-borne and water-borne infectious diseases are two main categories of infectious diseases that are forecasted to be most affected. There will be an increase in the number of vector-borne infections via expansion of the arthropod-infested areas, and increase in feeding behavior of infected mosquitoes. There will be increase in the number of cases with water-borne diarrhea diseases. It should, however, be noted that the levels of the impacts of climate change on human health will differ among regions, depending on factors such as social infrastructures, foreign trade and trip, age distribution, etc. Thus, the effects on health should be elucidated for each of the regions of the world. The studies of the effect of climate change on human health have been progressed in recent years; however, current understanding of the effect of climate change on human health including infectious diseases is not sufficient. Further studies are needed to understand in detail the effect of climate change on human health.
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