4 Accounting for Health Impacts of Climate Change Table 1 Projected Health Impacts of Climate Change Health Outcome Effects of Climate Change Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases • Heat waves cause short-term increases in mortality. • Deaths from heat stroke increase during heat waves. • Weather affects concentrations of harmful air pollutants. Allergic rhinitis • Weather affects the distribution, seasonality, and production of aeroallergens. Deaths and injuries, infectious diseases, and mental disorders • Floods, landslides, and windstorms cause death and injuries. • Flooding disrupts water supply and sanitation systems and may damage transport systems and health care infrastructure. • Floods may provide breeding sites for mosquito vectors. • Floods may increase post-traumatic stress disorders. Starvation, malnutrition, and diarrheal and respiratory diseases • Drought reduces water availability for hygiene. • Drought increases the risk of forest fires, which adversely affects air quality. • Climate change may decrease food supplies (crop yields and fish stocks) or access to food supplies. Mosquito-, tick-, and rodent-borne diseases • Higher temperatures shorten the development time of pathogens in vectors and increase the potential of transmission to humans. • Each vector species has specific climate conditions (temperature and humidity) to be sufficiently abundant to maintain transmission. Waterborne and food-borne diseases • Survival of disease-causing organisms is related to temperature. • Climate conditions affect water availability and quality. • Extreme rainfall can affect the transport of disease-causing organisms into the water supply. Source: Adapted from Kovats, K., L., Ebi, and B. Menne. 2003. Methods of Assessing Human Health Vulnerability and Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change. Geneva: World Health Organization. www.who.dk/document/E81923.pdf Incidence of Dengue Fever in Indonesia (per 100,000 people) Figure 1 40 35 30 La Niña’s years 25 20 15 10 5 2001 2002 2003 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 1990 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1972 1973 1974 1975 1968 1969 1970 1971 0 Source: Asian Development Bank. 2009. The Economics of Climate Change in South East Asia: A Regional Review. Manila.