The following chart from the World Health Organization (WHO)
describes the estimated affect climate change has had on human disease (2000):
A report published in 2008 reports that “since
the 1970s climate change has contributed to 150,000 more deaths every year from
disease” (Potter). Specifically,
the WHO estimates that there were 655,00 deaths due to malaria in 2010.
According to the WHO, "over 2.5 billion people- over 40% of the world's population- are now at risk from Dengue".
The following two maps show the recent ranges
of both Malaria (2003) and Dengue (2010):
As seen, both
Malaria and Dengue thrive in tropical climates. It is predicted that the
increase in transmission due to climate change will be most seen in what are
currently temperate regions. Transmission will increase, as these areas will no
longer be too cold for the mosquito vectors.
Most studies predict expansion of mosquito vector-borne disease to
spread specifically to central Asia, North America and northern Europe.
*To see how these regions are predicted to change with climate change see the Predicted Range page.
*To see how these regions are predicted to change with climate change see the Predicted Range page.
What if you added to the figure above (with the isotherms) the position of the January and July isotherms in 2100? All you'd need to know is how much warmer it's projected to get by 2100 (try the IPCC report) and roughly where it is currently that much colder both north and southward (in other words, where the 10C January and July Isotherms are likely to be then). This will allow you to directly show with some lines roughly how much the extent of these diseases are predicted to expand, which would be scary and cool.
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