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Cascading risks of waterborne diseases from climate change

Nature Immunology volume 21, pages 484–487 (2020)Cite this article

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Climate change can trigger a sequence of events of significant magnitude with consequences for waterborne diseases. Heavy rainfall, flooding and hot weather are associated with waterborne diseases, but early warning systems could intercept these cascading risks.

Public health has devised a number of strategies to tackle infectious disease outbreaks1. Yet climate change poses new challenges to public health practice because, aside from gradual changes in climate, there can be sudden and atypical changes. Transmission pathways of infectious diseases, including waterborne diseases, are affected not only by changes in mean temperature and precipitation but also by sudden and atypical weather events. Moreover, the associated health risk is a function of the interactions of the weather hazard with exposure (individual, community and water infrastructure) and vulnerability (demographic, poverty and health care). Thus, options to manage the burden of waterborne diseases attributable to climate change need to address not only exposure and vulnerability but also the capricious nature of climate change.

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Fig. 1: Graphical representation of the cascading risk pathways from climate change for waterborne diseases.
Fig. 2

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank J. Takkinen and M. Catchpole at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for critical feedback on the manuscript. The views and opinions expressed herein are the author’s own and do not necessarily state or reflect those of the ECDC. The ECDC is not responsible for the data and information collation and analysis and cannot be held liable for conclusions or opinions drawn.

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  1. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Scientific Assessment Section

    Jan C. Semenza

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Correspondence to Jan C. Semenza.

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Semenza, J.C. Cascading risks of waterborne diseases from climate change. Nat Immunol 21, 484–487 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-020-0631-7

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