Environmental Management Linked to Spread of Infectious Diseases -- Part 2
Some health experts think the weather and mice figure in disease in another way, as carriers or hantavirus. The Arizona Republic's Jodie Snyder reported this past spring that some Arizona health department officials were worrying about "higher-than-normal numbers of wild mice," which have been linked in the past to the spread of hantavirus. These officials warned people to avoid wild rodents, nests and droppings. Snyder's article advised people not to sweep or vacuum mouse droppings from cabins that had been closed up all winter. The advice was to spray disinfectant and then clean the droppings up with paper towels. Another article advised not going into crawl spaces, garages and other dusty areas mice might frequent before disinfecting first. Whether these actions work or not has not been proven scientifically, but there didn't appear to be any better ideas.
So what are we to conclude from all of this? The NCPA analysis paper may be biased in its argument that climate change is not at fault for the spread of diseases. Data in the paper are self-serving. Still, the NCPA analysis is correct in saying that poverty and government policies affect the incidence of disease. Poverty is considered an environmental issue by developing nations even though you won't find many people in the United States who would name it as one. Still, we should not ignore the broader impact of environmental management that encompasses climate change issues.
Addendum
I wrote this article in early July. While in Australia in the second half of July, I read that malaria-carrying mosquitoes had been found in Queensland, 350 km south of the previously known boundary for the disease. The distance from human habitation, however, made transmission of malaria unlikely, according to the article. Only nine people have acquired malaria in Queensland since 1981. Can we conclude that climate change has caused this increase in mosquito distribution? No. The data are insufficient. But the event is nonetheless interesting.
On July 30, the United Airlines flight I was taking in Sydney informed passengers that the water supply could not be used because Sydney had reported water contamination by cryptosporidium and giardia. The flight was delayed about a half an hour while a supply of bottled water was brought aboard; one bottle for each passenger. Can we conclude anything from the contamination of a major city? No. The data are insufficient. But the event is nonetheless interesting.
On August 8, Planet Ark reported
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