Special Issue "Climate Change and Human Health"

Associate Editor
Dr. P. Grady Dixon
Mississippi State University, Assistant Professor of Geosciences, P.O. Box 5448, Mississippi State, MS 39762-5448, USA
Website: http://geosciences.msstate.edu/people/dixon
E-Mail:
Interests: climate-health relationships; human-environment interactions; applied climatology

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Pablo Fernández de Arróyabe
Climate and Health Commission at the ISB, University of Cantabria, Professor at the Geography Department, Santander 39005, Spain
Website: http://personales.unican.es/fernandhp/cv/
E-Mail:
Interests: biometeorology; health warning systems based on meteorological parameters; the use of GIS on Biometeorology and medical geography

Editorial Advisor
Prof. Dr. Laurence S. Kalkstein
University of Miami, Geography and Regional Studies, Antonio Ferre Building, 1000 Memorial Drive, Coral Gables, FL 33124-2221, USA
Website: http://www.as.miami.edu/geography/research/climatology/
E-Mail:
Interests: climate-health relationships; climate-organism relationships; synoptic climatology; climate indices

Dear Colleagues,

It has been known for centuries that climatic conditions affect human health in many different ways. The relationships between human health and climate have become especially important in the last decades. Global climate change, regional weather extremes, and large-scale epidemics are generating international interest in the effects of climate on human health and mortality.

This special issue is focused on all aspects of how weather and climate variability interact with human health. The editors encourage submissions that address novel theories and methods, those that question previously-reported ideas, and those that use prior results to predict possible future scenarios.

Prof. Dr. Pablo Fernández de Arróyabe
Guest Editor

Related MDPI Journal

Sustainability

Submission

• emerging diseases in new environments
• vector-borne diseases
• health warning systems based on meteorological forecasts
• the use of bio-meteorological indexes
• extreme climatic events and sanitary consequences
• interaction between climate, air pollution, and health
• weather variability and mental illnesses
• deprivation index, welfare, and climate change, among others

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Human Dirofilariosis in Europe
Author: Claudio Genchi; E-Mail: claudio.genchi@unimi.it
Abstract: Climatic changes, together with an increase in the movement of reservoirs (mostly cats and dogs) across Europe, have caused an increase in the geographical range of several vector borne parasites like Dirofilaria, previously endemic/hyperendemic in southern regions, and the risk of infection for humans and animals. The present paper reviews the effects of climate and other global drivers on Dirofilaria immitis and D. repens infections in Europe and the possible implications on the transmission and control of these mosquito-borne nematodes. In the last several years, growing degree day (GDD)-based forecast models, which use wide or local scale temperature data, have been developed to predict the occurrence and seasonality of Dirofilaria in different parts of the world. The output of these models predicts that the summer temperatures are sufficient to facilitate extrinsic incubation of Dirofilaria even at high latitudes as recently verified by several empirical data both from humans and animals in northern European countries such as Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Hungary and Russia. The global warming projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests that warm summers suitable for Dirofilaria transmission in Europe will be the rule in the future decades and if the actual trend of temperature increase continues, filarial infection should spread into previously infection-free areas. These factors not only favour incubation of Dirofilaria, but also impact on mosquito species. Recent findings have also demonstrated that Aedes albopictus is now considered to be an important, competent vector of Dirofilaria infections. Until now, the species which has been shown most able to spreading from southern to northern areas is D. repens, the most important agent of human dirofilariosis in Europe, recently included into the emergent zoonotic infections in country such as Hungary and Italy (e.g. the number of published human cases in Italy has increased from 4.5 per year from 1986 to 1998 to 15.6 per year in the last decade [1999-2009]). In humans, most conditions are due to subcutaneous and ocular localization of the parasite, but very severe cases, mimicking histocytic or scrotal tumors.
The paper will review the biology of the parasite (briefly), its actual and predictable geographical distribution by GIS methodology, its importance in public health, clinical presentation and new acquisition in the pathogenesis of human disease.

Title: Assessment of Flooding Impact to Dengue Fever Occurrence in Southern Taiwan
Authors: Tsung-Yi Pan, Hwa-Lung Yu and Chun-Jih Liou
Affiliation: Dept of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taiwan; E-Mail: hlyu@ntu.edu.tw (H.-L.Y.)
Abstract: Dengue Fever (DF) has been identified by the World Health organization (WHO) as one of the most serious vector-borne infectious diseases in tropical and sub-tropical areas. Studies revealed that DF can be closely associated with hydrological variables, e.g. precipitation and temperature. Recent observations show that the frequency of extreme events of precipitation significantly increases in Taiwan. Due to the changing climate, flooding risk can potentially be elevated through time over entire Taiwan. In this study, the spatiotemporal relationship between flooding and DF occurrences will be investigated in southern Taiwan. The proposed analysis can suggest a projection of the magnitude of future DF outbreak.
Keywords: Dengue fever; flooding; spatiotemporal analysis

Type of Paper: Review
Title: to be added
Author: R. Thomas Palo
Affiliation: Dept. Natural Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics, Mid Sweden University, 851 70 Sundsvall, Sweden; E-Mail: Thomas.Palo@miun.se
Abstract: Animal-borne diseases are likely to be affected by climate change. It is of interest to analyse the sensitivity of reservoir species to climate change and how changes in their ecology would affect transmission of zoonotic diseases to man. One scenario is that elevated temperature in northern regions has a direct effect on reservoir species by greater survival and hence generally higher population densities. Further, warmer climate may make certain key habitats more beneficial for replication and possibly greater transfer of disease agents such as for tularaemia to vectors/mammals and man. On the other hand, animal responses to climate change may vary among species and changes in their ecology causing increased variability in population size or dependence of timing with certain food resources may adversely affect reservoir species. Here we review the number of human cases of Tick Borne Encephalitis(TBE), tularemia and Nephropathia epidemica(NE) in relation to population size of their most common reservoirs, the mountain hare (Lepus timidus), field hare (L. europeaus) and the bank vole (Myodes glareolus). In addition, we used the NAO index as a proxy for large scale climate variation and the temperature in some Swedish lakes or local climate variations.
The results show that TBE and NE infection in man is more related on the population density of reservoir species than on the large scale climate variations. In case of TBE and hantavirus they are directly proportional to population density of reservoir species while tularaemia shows more complex relationship with climate, environment and vector/reservoirs.
We conclude that the outcome of warmer climate may be that some species adapted to northern winter conditions may suffer from a warmer temperature while introduced species such as the field hare benefit from warmer climate and spreading northwards. This will lead to further expansion of ticks (Ixodes ricinus) and TBE to the north, but that tularaemia might cease in a warmer environment. The effect by warmer climate on NE is unceratin but possibly is the reservoir species, the bank vole adversely affected. Climate factors are discussed in relation to population trends of the main reservoir species for the above zoonotic diseases.