Doctors warn warming will cause health issues

Climate change is likely to lead to higher rates of some infectious and respiratory diseases as well as more injuries from storms and bushfires, a report by Australian doctors warned yesterday.

The Doctors for the Environment Australia report found that over the next decade, the health of children and the elderly would be most at risk from rising temperatures.

“In 2020, it is likely that Australian doctors and other health professionals will be seeing patients with a diverse range of climate change-related illnesses,” the group, which aims to raise awareness about the health impacts of climate change, said in its report.

“These include heat stress, other heat-related illness events [affecting the heart, blood vessels and lungs], trauma from extreme weather events, and more allergic diseases,” it said.

Meanwhile, greater air pollution would increase respiratory illnesses and higher temperatures could raise the risk of some infectious diseases such as gastroenteritis and some mosquito-borne ailments such as dengue fever.

The report noted that climate change already posed a threat.

“In the coming decades doctors who are interested in the long term health of their patients and communities will have a central role in the mitigation of climate change and in preparing for and managing its adverse health impacts,” it said.