No country is immune to the negative health effects of climate change

Heat waves, transmission of infectious diseases, nutritional deficiencies: no country, rich or poor, is immune to the health consequences of an increasingly serious climate change. Unless urgent action is taken, the climate crisis could undermine the progress of the past 50 years in public health, disrupting the lives and living conditions of millions of people and overwhelming health systems.

This is the alarming observation of the “countdown on health and climate change” of the Hand, a leading British medical journal, published on Thursday 3 December. This 5^is edition presents the worst landscape since the launch, in 2015, of this collaboration of 35 institutions, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 120 authors ask to take advantage of the “key moment” stimulus plans to improve public health, create a sustainable economy and protect the environment.

“The pandemic has shown us that when health is threatened on a global scale, our economies and lifestyles can come to a halt., recalls Ian Hamilton, executive director of The Lancet Countdown. However, threats to human health are increasing and intensifying due to climate change, and if we don’t change course our health systems risk being overwhelmed in the future. Not everyone has the luxury of facing more than one crisis at a time. “

France among the most at risk

As warming continues to accelerate, people over the age of 65 experienced a record number of days of heat wave exposure worldwide in 2019. Heat-related deaths among this population have increased by 54% in the past. two decades, reaching nearly 300,000 deaths in 2018, mainly in China, India, Germany and the United States. “Heat waves cause heatstroke, sunstroke and severe dehydration which can lead to kidney failure. The heat also aggravates cardiovascular and respiratory diseases “, explains Hélène Rossinot, a public health specialist and one of the authors of the report for France.

With over 104,000 deaths in total, Europe is the most affected region, as defined by the WHO, including all of Russia and many Central Asian countries. This vulnerability to extreme heat has long been exacerbated in the Old Continent and the Eastern Mediterranean, due to an older population, a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease and significant urbanization that generates urban heat islands.

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