Hundreds of known infectious diseases are now worse than ever due to the climate crisis. Hazards such as flooding, heatwaves and drought have had a worsening impact on more than half of the hundreds of known infectious diseases in humans.
According to researchers, this applies to diseases including malaria, hantavirus, cholera and even anthrax. Researchers looked through the medical literature of established cases of illnesses and found 218 out of the 375 known human infectious diseases - 58% - seemed to be made worse by one of 10 types of extreme weather connected to climate change, according to a study in the Nature Climate Change journal.
Doctors dating back to Hippocrates have long connected disease to weather. Now this new study shows how widespread the influence of climate is on human health.
