Climate change increasing malaria risk, research reveals

[panzerfaust]

Source: Guardian (UK)

Rising temperatures on the slopes of Mount Kenya have put an extra 4 million people at risk of malaria, research funded by the UK government warned today.

Climate change has raised average temperatures in the Central Highlands region of Kenya, allowing the disease to creep into higher altitude areas where the population has little or no immunity.

The findings by a research team funded by the UK Department for International Development (DfID), showed that seven times more people are contracting the disease in outbreaks in the region than 10 years ago.

The team from the Kenyan Medical Research Institute (Kemri) said that while similar outbreaks elsewhere have been attributed to multiple factors including drug resistance and changes in land use, the only change on Mount Kenya is a rise in temperature....

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/31/climate-change-malaria-kenya

---

"Malaria is a leading cause of death and illness worldwide..." (CDC) "... most people who die from malaria are African children less than 5 years old ..."

Palin: "I'm not a doom and gloom environmentalist like Al Gore blaming the changes in our climate on human activity."

If Palin, and the other deniers, are correct then we need take no steps to decrease our generation of green-house gases. If they are wrong, it is our only hope.

[RumJungle]

1. Actually,

if the lower areas become more arid there will be less breeding grounds and thus less malaria......

[Andronex]

8. please...

common sense has nothing to do with the global warming debate and is not appreciated here.

[RumJungle]

9. My bad,

I forgot that GW is always a worst case scenario.....

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[polly7]

17. Climate Change Fueling Malaria

Climate Change Fueling Malaria in Kenya, Experts SayEliza Barclay in Tumutumu, Kenya
for National Geographic News

January 9, 2008
Esther Njoki lay on a slender cot in the women's ward of Tumutumu Hospital, lucid for the first time in days after being ambushed by fever and delirium. The emaciated 80-year-old had survived a bout of malaria, but her doctor said it nearly killed her.

Malaria has long been endemic to Kenya's humid coast and swampy lowland regions, but it has only rarely reached Njoki's village on the slopes of Mount Kenya (see Kenya map).


Malaria: Interactive Guide to a Global Killer
In recent decades, however, scientists have noted an increase in epidemics in the region, as well as in sporadic cases like Njoki's.

Many medical and environmental experts attribute the spike in malaria to climate change, in the form of warmer temperatures and variations in rainfall patterns. (See a map of global warming's effects.)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080109-malaria-warming.html


Climate Change and Malaria

http://www.brown.edu/Research/EnvStudies_Theses/full9900/creid/climate_change_and_malaria.htm


Africa:Warmer Climate Gives Malaria New Hunting Grounds
Stephen Leahy
19 February 2009

Chicago — Climate change is bringing malaria to regions of Africa where the disease was previously unknown, researchers report from the conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago this week.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200902190790.html

[polly7]

20. Actually, as glaciers melt, sea levels rise,

lower areas will naturally flood and become terrific breeding grounds.

[fasttense]

2. Malaria will continue to spread throughout the US with climate change.

First the bug will move into the South Eastern states. As they dry up from continued climate change, the bug will move further north, it will not just retreat.

Maybe it will bite the the bankers on Wall Street. They can build another wall. Wasn't the wall that Wall Street was named after put there to keep the pigs out of the market? It didn't work.

[Feisty]

3. No Rise of Airborne Fraction of Carbon Dioxide in Past 150 Years, New Research Finds

....To assess whether the airborne fraction is indeed increasing, Wolfgang Knorr of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol reanalyzed available atmospheric carbon dioxide and emissions data since 1850 and considers the uncertainties in the data.
In contradiction to some recent studies, he finds that the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091230184221.htm

[fascisthunter]

6. What Was the Point of Quoting the Article You Did?

"...45 percent of emitted carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere"

Most who know about global warming know this.... and 45% has proven to be way too much.

[ananda]

7. Not only that ...

The ability of the earth's ecostystems to absorb
excess CO2 is completely compromised.

That's the crux of the AGW issue.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RumJungle]

11. No..

there have been much higher levels of co2 before, once you reach a certain point it does not trap any more heat than before.

[PaulaFarrell]

18. All this means is that the carbon sinks have not yet started to lose their ability to absorb carbon

- which was what this study was trying to determine.

The 'airborne fraction' has remained more at less constant at 43% (actually inceasing .7 per decade but within the margin of error). This does not mean that the amount is CO2 in the atmosphere is not increasing (we know for a fact that it is), merely that the percent of the emissions taken in to the atmosphere has remained more or less constant. However, given that emssions have increased from near-zero in 1850 to nearly 30 billion mertic tonnes now, there is clearly a huge amount of man-made c02 in the atmosphere compared to 150 years ago - 43% of 30 billion tonnes is much more than 43% of next to nothing. But nice try.

[notesdev]

4. Brought to you by

the same set of self-righteous windbags who had DDT banned, which led to millions of dead Africans from - you guessed it - malaria.

[WriteDown]

5. That was pretty sad...

The most effective anti-mosquito method and it couldn't be used. Of course most people don't care about a few million dead Africans.

[RumJungle]

10. Unless they die from

"global warming" and then we can blame the corporations and feel all giddy and warm inside.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[PaulaFarrell]

19. Your ability to construct your own little world

of humanity-hating environmentalists is quite amazing. IN fact, most environmentalists are among the nicest people around - but that's beside the point.

Many major anti-poverty NGOs have cited climate change as their number one concern, and are actively campaigning about it - how do you reconcile that? Do they secretly hate Africans too? The same ones they spend their lives trying to help?

I know it's not done to quote wikipedia, but for anyone interested in the facts, here they are:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT

In 1955, the World Health Organization commenced a program to eradicate malaria worldwide, relying largely on DDT. The program was initially highly successful, eliminating the disease in "Taiwan, much of the Caribbean, the Balkans, parts of northern Africa, the northern region of Australia, and a large swath of the South Pacific"<17> and dramatically reducing mortality in Sri Lanka and India.<18> However resistance soon emerged in many insect populations as a consequence of widespread agricultural use of DDT. In many areas, early victories against malaria were partially or completely reversed, and in some cases rates of transmission even increased.<19> The program was successful in eliminating malaria only in areas with "high socio-economic status, well-organized healthcare systems, and relatively less intensive or seasonal malaria transmission".<20>

DDT was less effective in tropical regions due to the continuous life cycle of mosquitoes and poor infrastructure. It was not pursued at all in sub-Saharan Africa due to these perceived difficulties, with the result that mortality rates in the area were never reduced to the same dramatic extent, and now constitute the bulk of malarial deaths worldwide, especially following the resurgence of the disease as a result of microbe resistance to drug treatments and the spread of the deadly malarial variant caused by Plasmodium falciparum. The goal of eradication was abandoned in 1969, and attention was focused on controlling and treating the disease. Spraying programs (especially using DDT) were curtailed due to concerns over safety and environmental effects, as well as problems in administrative, managerial and financial implementation, but mostly because mosquitoes were developing resistance to DDT .<19> Efforts were shifted from spraying to the use of bednets impregnated with insecticides and other interventions.<20><21>

[WriteDown]

22. Always want to check the footnotes...

19.^ a b c d Chapin G, Wasserstrom R (1981). "Agricultural production and malaria resurgence in Central America and India". Nature 293 (5829): 181–5. doi:10.1038/293181a0. PMID 7278974.

I'd be very curious to actually read this article on India and CA.

Considering DDT's use in Africa was so limited, I would love to know how they came to this conclusion.

Here's a little tidbit for you:

In South Africa, the most developed nation on the continent, the incidence of malaria had been kept very low (below 10,000 cases annually) by the careful use of DDT. But in 1996 environmentalist pressure convinced program directors to cease using DDT. One of the worst epidemics in the country's history ensued, with almost 62,000 cases in 2000. Shortly after this peak, South Africa reintroduced DDT. In one year, malaria cases plummented by 80 percent. Next door, in Mozambique, whick doesn't use DDT, malaria rates remain stratospheric. Similar experiences have been recorded in Zambia and other African countries.

http://www.aaenvironment.com/DDT.htm

[PaulaFarrell]

23. Again, for people who prefer the truth

to anti-environmentalist rhetoric, here is a good article on the whole malaria/DDT issue:

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3186
...

For one thing, there is no global DDT ban. DDT is indeed banned in the U.S., but malaria isn’t exactly a pressing issue here. If it ever were, the ban contains an exception for matters of public health. Meanwhile, it’s perfectly legal—and indeed, used—in many other countries: 10 out of the 17 African nations that currently conduct indoor spraying use DDT (New York Times, 9/16/06).

DDT use has decreased enormously, but not because of a ban. The real reason is simple, although not one conservatives are particularly fond of: evolution. Mosquito populations rapidly develop resistance to DDT, creating enzymes to detoxify it, modifying their nervous systems to avoid its effects, and avoiding areas where DDT is sprayed — and recent research finds that that resistance continues to spread even after DDT spraying has stopped, lowering the effectiveness not only of DDT but also other pesticides (Current Biology, 8/9/05).

...

These myths can have serious consequences. For one thing, despite what is claimed by the right, DDT itself is quite harmful. Studies have suggested that prenatal exposure to DDT leads to significant decreases in mental and physical functioning among young children, with the problems becoming more severe when the exposure is more serious (American Journal of Epidemiology, 9/12/06; Pediatrics, 7/1/06), while the EPA classifies it as a probable human carcinogen.

For another, resistance is deadly. Not only has DDT’s overuse made it ineffective, but, as noted, it has led mosquitoes to evolve “cross-resistance”: resistance not only to DDT but also to other insecticides, including those with less dangerous environmental effects.

And perhaps most importantly, the pro-DDT line is a vast distraction. There are numerous other techniques for dealing with malaria: alternative insecticides, bed nets and a combination of drugs called artemisinin-based combination therapy, or ACT. ACT actually kills the malaria parasite fast, allowing the patient a quick recovery, and has a success rate of 95 percent (World Health Organization, 2001). Rollouts of ACT in other countries have slashed malaria rates by 80 to 97 percent (Washington Monthly, 7/06).

...

[WriteDown]

24. I cited a specific RECENT instance showing DDT's effectiveness..

You have yet to disprove that. They're only brown people though so if we lose a few million each year it isn't so bad.

[vadawg]

21. fucking applause to the rafters....

[Kali]

15. LIES

LALALALALALALALALALA I CAAAAAN'T HEEAAAR YOOOUUUUUU!!!!111!!!!!1!11!!

The whole thing is just a plot by climate scientists to get more grant money!

















and because this is not the lounge and can be humor/sarcasm impaired: :sarcasm:

[Uncle Joe]

16. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, panzerfaust.