Climate change may increase risk of new infections

Climate change may increase risk of new infections

Subject: Environment

Section: Climate Change

Context- African, Asian nations face the greatest threat of increased virus exposure from animals to humans.

Concept-

• Climate change will result in thousands of new viruses spread among animal species by 2070.
• It is likely to increase the risk of emerging infectious diseases jumping from animals to humans, according to a new study.
• This is especially true for Africa and Asia, continents that have been hotspots for deadly disease spread from humans to animals or vice versa over the last several decades, including the flu, HIV, ebola and COVID-19.
• Researchers found that if the world warms by 2 degree celsius, cross-species virus spread will happen over 4,000 times among mammals alone.
  • Not all viruses will spread to humans or become pandemic like the scale of the coronavirus but the number of cross- species viruses increases the risk of spread to humans.
  • The study highlights two global crises, climate change and infectious disease spread.
• Previous research has looked at how deforestation, extinction and wildlife trade lead to animal-human disease spread, but there is less research about how climate change could influence this type of disease transmission.
• Climate change can lead to Rise of Zoonotic diseases from animals to humans.