Clinical Implications of Climate Change on US Emergency Medicine: Challenges and Opportunities

Sorensen, Cecilia; Salas, Renee N; Rublee, Caitlin; Hill, Kevin; Bartlett, Emily S.; Charlton, Paul; Dyamond, Chelsea; Fockele, Callan; Harper, Rachel; Barot, Sabiha K.; Calvello-Hynes, Emilie; Hess, Jeremy; Lemery, Jay

doi:10.1016/j.annemergmed.2020.03.010

Cited by 33 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Linking climate-related flood, fire, heat, dust, and drought responses beginning at the scene and as a component of EC systems will be increasingly important with life-threatening climate exposures. Changes in health impacts and demand from climate-related conditions such as trauma, non-communicable diseases, communicable diseases, and behavioral health disorders [5] will also be imperative to address for EC.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Extreme weather events—droughts, floods, wildfires, cyclones, and heat waves— contribute to life-threatening health conditions: traumatic injuries, heat-related illnesses, asthma exacerbations, cardiovascular disease, behavioural health disorders, and increasing vector borne diseases such as malaria [ 2 , 4 ]. Emergency medicine, with its focus on acute care, is at the forefront of caring for patients adversely impacted, especially those that are most vulnerable due to physiological, cultural, and socioeconomic factors [5] . Considering that these effects are expected to increase in both prevalence and intensity over time [6] , it is increasingly important that emergency care (EC) (out-of-hospital and facility-based) and health care teams prepare to respond to these changes in presentation and demand.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Climate change and emergency care in Africa: A scoping review

Theron

Bills

Hynes

et al. 2022

African Journal of Emergency Medicine

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change and emergency care in Africa: A scoping review

Theron

Bills

Hynes

et al. 2022

African Journal of Emergency Medicine

Self Cite

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“…6 ). Consider first the recent Zika epidemic in the Americas 36 , which in the US led to $1.1 billion 37 of public spending for emergency response. Official CDC numbers 38 for Zika cases in the US indicate that both Miami, FL, and New York City (NYC), NY, reported slightly more than 1,000 cases in 2016, around 40% of the total number of cases in the US.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

AeDES: a next-generation monitoring and forecasting system for environmental suitability of Aedes-borne disease transmission

Muñoz¹,

Chourio²,

Rivière-Cinnamond

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Aedes-borne diseases, such as dengue and chikungunya, are responsible for more than 50 million infections worldwide every year, with an overall increase of 30-fold in the last 50 years, mainly due to city population growth, more frequent travels and ecological changes. in the United States of America, the vast majority of Aedes-borne infections are imported from endemic regions by travelers, who can become new sources of mosquito infection upon their return home if the exposed population is susceptible to the disease, and if suitable environmental conditions for the mosquitoes and the virus are present. Since the susceptibility of the human population can be determined via periodic monitoring campaigns, the environmental suitability for the presence of mosquitoes and viruses becomes one of the most important pieces of information for decision makers in the health sector. We present a next-generation monitoring and forecasting system for Aedes-borne diseases' environmental suitability (AeDeS) of transmission in the conterminous United States and transboundary regions, using calibrated ento-epidemiological models, climate models and temperature observations. After analyzing the seasonal predictive skill of AeDES, we briefly consider the recent Zika epidemic, and the compound effects of the current Central American dengue outbreak happening during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, to illustrate how a combination of tailored deterministic and probabilistic forecasts can inform key prevention and control strategies. Human society is more and more interconnected every year by communication technologies, travel and supply chains. As a consequence, increasing movement of humans, animals, pathogens, vectors, goods, and capital across borders creates both risks and opportunities 1. Like climate, epidemics do not mind political borders, and can impact social stability and human health. In the last couple of decades, the appearance of a variety of new epidemics, such as the SARS coronavirus in 2003, the avian influenza (H1N1) in 2009, the Ebola virus in western Africa (2014-2016), the Zika virus in the Americas (2015-2016), and the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) identified in late December 2019 in Wuhan (China) and still ongoing, amongst others, demonstrates how fast emerging infectious diseases can spread, sometimes causing damage at national or regional scale, and other times-like the present SARS-CoV-2 pandemic-impacting the entire world 2. Multiple infectious diseases are climate-sensitive, with climate acting as a key driver of spatio-temporal patterns of infections, related to seasonal, year-to-year, and longer-term shifts in populations at risk 3. Climate

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“…Climate change is altering the frequency, intensity, spatial extent, duration, and timing of extremes [ 1 ]. This affects morbidity, particularly among vulnerable populations [ 2 ], and extends to mortality and road accidents. Losses will intensify in absence of climate change adaptation and mitigation practices [ 3 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to temperature, other meteorological parameters for predicting morbidity and mortality are solar radiation, humidity, wind speed, precipitation, and foehn [ 4 , 6 , 8 , 24 , 25 ]. Following extreme weather events, there is an increased demand for emergency services and an increased mortality risk [ 2 , 26 ]. Road accidents as well as associated injuries and fatalities have been influenced by both high and low temperatures [ 27 – 30 ], precipitation [ 31 , 32 ], sunshine and wind speed [ 33 ], as well as by sandstorms [ 34 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Universal thermal climate index associations with mortality, hospital admissions, and road accidents in Bavaria

et al. 2021

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When meteorological conditions deviate from the optimal range for human well-being, the risks of illness, injury, and death increase, and such impacts are feared in particular with more frequent and intense extreme weather conditions resulting from climate change. Thermal indices, such as the universal thermal climate index (UTCI), can better assess human weather-related stresses by integrating multiple weather components. This paper quantifies and compares the seasonal and spatial association of UTCI with mortality, morbidity, and road accidents in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany. Linear regression was applied to seasonally associate daily 56 million hospital admissions and 2.5 million death counts (1995–2015) as well as approximately 930,000 road accidents and 1.7 million people injured (2002–2015) with spatially interpolated same day- and lagged- (up to 14 days) average UTCI values. Additional linear regressions were performed stratifying by age, gender, region, and district. UTCI effects were clear in all three health outcomes studied: Increased UTCI resulted in immediate (1–2 days) rises in morbidity and even more strongly in mortality in summer, and lagged (up to 14 days) decreases in fall, winter, and spring. The strongest UTCI effects were found for road accidents where increasing UTCI led to immediate decreases in daily road accidents in winter but pronounced increases in all other seasons. Differences in UTCI effects were observed e.g. between in warmer north-western regions (Franconia, more districts with heat stress-related mortality, but hospital admissions for lung, heart and external reasons decreasing with summer heat stress), the touristic alpine regions in the south (immediate effect of increasing UTCI on road accidents in summer), and the colder south-eastern regions (increasing hospital admissions for lung, heart and external reasons in winter with UTCI). Districts with high percentages of elderly suffered from higher morbidity and mortality, particularly in winter. The influences of UTCI as well as the spatial and temporal patterns of this influence call for improved infrastructure planning and resource allocation in the health sector.

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Clinical Implications of Climate Change on US Emergency Medicine: Challenges and Opportunities

Cited by 33 publications

References 59 publications

Climate change and emergency care in Africa: A scoping review

Climate change and emergency care in Africa: A scoping review

AeDES: a next-generation monitoring and forecasting system for environmental suitability of Aedes-borne disease transmission

Universal thermal climate index associations with mortality, hospital admissions, and road accidents in Bavaria

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