The topic of discussion at a special seminar Wednesday night given by Jonathan Patz, MD, MPH, of the University of Wisconsin department of population health sciences and Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, centered on the emergence of disease from global ecological change.
Patz provided a broad overview of the most pressing problems connecting ecology and human health. These include climate change, the hole in the ozone layer and ecosystem degradation and alterations.
Patz described drastic climate changes as a major factor in public health. With increasing amounts of greenhouse gasses, arctic regions have experienced warming trends leading to rising sea levels and, consequently, greater risk for exposure to vector- and waterborne diseases as well as issues of water resource supply.
Sixty-seven percent of waterborne disease outbreaks were preceded by precipitation above the 80th precipitation percentile for rainfall averages. Patz pointed to the 1993 cryptosporidiosis outbreak in Milwaukee affecting more than 400,000 people preceded by the heaviest recorded rainfall in the last 50 years.
According to the World Health Organization, as many as 120,000 deaths occur each year as a result of climate change. This figure is expected to double in the next 25 years, said Patz.
Patz pointed to the European heat wave of 2003 as a starting demonstration of this trend.
“As many as 35,000 people died in less than two weeks time due to heat waves,” said Patz. “This is not a trivial effect.”
As deaths related to climate change are on the rise worldwide, there appears to be an inverse relationship between the amount of pollution that a country is responsible for and the number of climate-related deaths, according to Patz.
“This really becomes an ethical issue. We see the industrialized nations like the United States and in Europe that are spewing out most of the most fossil-fuel emissions, yet we’re experiencing the least amount of climate-change-related deaths.”
Land-management practices are another pressing issue in public-health awareness. In a study on deforestation and malaria conducted in the Amazonian rainforest of Peru, both mosquito-biting rate and malaria infection increase dramatically with deforestation. Patz pointed to the presence of standing water and loss of predator biodiversity as causes of mosquito proliferation and disease prevalence.
Patz praised UW as an institution where many different fields of study could come together to address the issues facing not only global public health, but also health issues affecting individuals locally.
Simone Warrack, a microbiologist with the State Laboratory of Public Health cited national and international travel as major avenues of transmission for diseases such as SARS and avian influenza.
“I think that we’re all global citizens even though we’re in this little town in the Midwest, and I think that we really need to be more aware of global health issues.”
The lecture was given as part of the university’s Global Health Program Seminar series, a set of monthly lectures designed to raise awareness, stimulate interest and bring visibility to global-health efforts underway at UW.
