While people focus on rising seas and rising temperatures as the globe warms, things are happening here and now with a direct effect on people. Not 50 years from now. Not next century. Now.
Ever hear of Lyme disease? Nasty stuff with symptoms that don't go away if left untreated. They can persist for life. It's tricky to diagnose, and can be difficult to cure. There's currently no vaccine. It's on the move in the U.S. Marianne Lavelle in Scientific American reports on data that shows the ticks that carry it are spreading far beyond the original locus in New England. Climate Change is the suspect.
While the disease is reported coast-to-coast, it is highly concentrated on the Eastern Seaboard, with a range expanding north into Canada and south through Virginia. Reasons for the spread are not fully understood but include suburbanization and the growth of suitable habitat for the black-legged tick, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC believes climate change may be a factor, and this spring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added Lyme disease to its list of climate change indicators.
The CDC estimates that the number of infections is likely 10 times higher than reported, nearly 300,000 new cases per year based on lab test data. Yale University researchers say that 10 percent of the population of southern New England has evidence of a previous Lyme disease infection.
It's not a joke to be infected with it.
Although the Lyme disease bacteria has an affinity for connective tissue – the reason why joint and neurological symptoms are common – it can cause illness in multiple systems of the body, with symptoms often changing over time. In the past year, CDC has published reports confirming that Lyme disease can be fatal; the bug can invade the heart and, in rare cases, trigger third-degree heart block.
For many patients who – often unknowingly – wind up with advanced stages of the disease, the most difficult impact is the erosion of mental function.
And to make it even more horrifying, there are growing suspicions infected mothers can pass it on to their children during pregnancy. Lavelle has the details in
a related article at Scientific American.
...Donnelly's doctor believes she did not contract Lyme in the usual way, through a tick bite. Instead, he suspects the disease was passed to her in the womb from her mother, who lived with undiagnosed Lyme disease for three decades.
It's a controversial claim: While U.S. public health authorities recommend that pregnant women who have Lyme disease be treated with antibiotics, they do not believe that science has demonstrated that the bacteria can be transmitted to a developing fetus. And yet a number of health practitioners who specialize in Lyme disease say that they've seen evidence that gestational transmission is occurring.
Meanwhile,
April Dembosky relates in the New York Times that extreme drought conditions in California are paradoxically increasing the rate of West Nile Virus infection. Shrinking bodies of water mean the birds that carry the disease and the mosquitos that spread it are being 'concentrated', upping transmission rates. There are more bodies of stagnant water as well, ideal for breeding mosquitos. Warmer temperatures make them more active.
The majority of people infected with West Nile virus show no symptoms. Twenty percent get flu-like aches and fever, and only 1.5 percent develop the most severe neuroinvasive form of the disease. Ten percent of those who get very sick, die.
So far this year, 12 people in California have died, mainly the elderly and people with underlying conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure. In total, California has the most reported cases of West Nile in the country — 311 cases as of last Friday. Texas is second with 98 cases, and Louisiana is third with 78, according to CDC data.
Climate Change is having a manifold impact across the face of the earth; 'normal' conditions anywhere are a moving target now. What's serious about the effects on disease organisms is this. Their life cycles are short, meaning they can adapt and evolve more quickly than more complex organisms. They'll have little trouble keeping up with climate change. As ecosystems are destabilized,
we are going to see diseases we haven't encountered before, and we're going to see old ones turning up in new places.
This may be a factor in the current outbreak of ebola in Africa, turning up as far as it has from previous outbreaks. The possibility will need to be examined. Climate Change will likely play a role in the spread of Chikungunya as the mosquitos that transmit it find their potential range expanding. The potential consequences are even larger when extended beyond mere human concerns. Diseases affect other organisms as well; domestic and wild animals, food crops and native vegetation.
There's a focus on meeting 2030 or 2050 deadlines for various climate change targets, but the truth is we could be facing serious challenges Real Soon Now from an unexpected direction.