Climate Change and Respiratory Infections (cystic fibrosis symptoms)
Melissa75
June 21, 2016
A recent article in the journal of the American Thoracic Society looks at how climate change is influencing respiratory infections.
The authors describe studies that have shown a connection between weather events and shifting respiratory disease levels in the general populations, but more significantly in children and the elderly.
The studies mentioned include:
- An increase in the rate of childhood pneumonia in Australia has been linked to periods of large temperature changes from one day to the next.
- Survivors of the 2011 tsunami in Japan experienced an outbreak of aspergillosis.
- An outbreak of Hantavirus in 2000 was linked to a surge in the rodent population caused by larger-than-normal rainfall.
The idea that weather can influence viral, bacteria and fungal infections is important to people with lung disease as it highlights some larger factors that may come into play with our health.
