Great Lakes Monitor for Disease

PUBLIC HEALTH PREPAREDNESS
Climate change is already underway. Although the worst impacts can still be avoided, some change is inevitable due to the long life of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. Society must begin to prepare by developing management plans for potential future public health risks such as changing patterns of waterborne and vector-borne disease, increased extreme heat events, and flooding. Health care system improvements, greater emergency response capability, improved access to air conditioning, and broad education of both the general and specific target populations will help us avoid the most severe impacts.


Solution strategies:	REDUCE AIR POLLUTION	REDUCE EXPOSURE TO HEAT	MONITOR FOR DISEASE
Links between climate variability and infectious disease risk are different for each disease; but for some diseases, heat and/or moisture are very important. Warmer temperatures and changes in precipitation may affect the spread of vector-borne diseases such as Lyme disease, West Nile virus, and influenza. Some waterborne infectious diseases such as cryptosporidiosis or giardiasis may become more frequent or widespread if more extreme rainfall events cause water treatment facilities to be overwhelmed. A combination of approaches, including monitoring, public education programs, vaccines, and certain behavior changes for individuals at higher risk, can help reduce the spread of diseases.