Climate change hampers progress on fighting epidemics: Global Fund

(Reuters News, 22 Oct 2019) Rising temperatures helps mosquitoes spread malaria in higher places in Africa.

Climate change is making it harder to eradicate deadly epidemics, with rising temperatures helping mosquitoes spread malaria in higher places in Africa, the head of a global health fund said on Tuesday.

Other potential deadly consequences of climate change include more intense cyclones which leave an increased risk of infections in their wake, said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

"Of the three diseases, the one most obviously affected by climate change is malaria," Sands told journalists in Geneva.

He described new, higher-altitude infections in Kenya and Ethiopia in East Africa as "very worrying".

The Global Fund, an alliance of governments, civil society and private sector partners, is pursuing a United Nations target of ending the three epidemics by 2030.

Warmer ocean surface waters are increasing the intensity and frequency of storms. The Fund had sent emergency resources after flooding caused by Cyclone Idai resulted in thousands of new malaria cases in Mozambique this year.

External link

Reuters News, 22 Oct 2019: Climate change hampers progress on fighting epidemics: Global Fund