Waterborne diseases are shifting in a warming world
A new review indicates that climate change is shifting the prevalence of waterborne diseases rather than causing a uniform increase. While warmer temperatures may accelerate bacterial infections like cholera, some common stomach viruses may decrease as cool, dry seasons shorten.
Why it matters
Understanding these shifting patterns is critical for public health planning and preparing for future infectious disease outbreaks.
A sweeping new review of waterborne diseases finds that a warming world will not push every one of them in the same direction.
Warmer water helps the bacteria behind some of the deadliest gut infections thrive.
On the other hand, several common stomach viruses fare better in cool, dry weather and may fade as the planet heats.
That split changes the outlook for illnesses that still kill nearly 1.2 million people a year through infectious diarrhea, most of them young children.
Rather than a uniform increase in danger, climate change looks set to reshuffle which pathogens threaten which communities, and when.
The review was led by Karen Levy , a professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Washington , who has spent much of her career tracing how weather influences the spread of gut infections.
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