Describe two health care concerns related to global climate change.

Increased Exposure to Vector-Borne Diseases
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Increased Exposure to Vector-Borne Diseases
Introduction
Numerous studies have indicated that a change in the global climatic patterns is a significant contributor to the spread of vector-borne diseases, including dengue, Zika, yellow fever, encephalitis, and malaria. These diseases have had a negative impact on the health security across the globe (Lemon, Sparling, Hamburg, Relman, Choffnes, & Mack, 2008). Additionally, these diseases have a significant socioeconomic impact on the global scale. The adverse weather conditions such as increasing temperatures and variability in weather patterns have been curtailing the efforts to combat these diseases (who.int, 2018). This paper seeks to examine the role played by the vectors in spreading diseases as a result of the variations in the patterns of weather.
Malaria is one example of a vector-borne disease that comes about as a result of the changes in the global climate (who.int, 2018). Malaria is common in the highland regions, the tropics and East Africa. The vectors responsible for the spread of this disease are sensitive to the changes in the climatic variable such as rainfall and temperature. The anticipated changes in the weather patterns, therefore, are responsible for the intensity, distribution, and spread of malaria. It is, therefore, a wake up call for all the stakeholders around the world to combat the problems related to climate change (who.int, 2018). The WHO reports indicate that approximately 3.2 billion people risk contracting malaria with the considerable share of this being sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is caused by Anopheles mosquitoes, which deposit their eggs in water, especially during the rainy season (climatenexus.org, 2018).
According to climatenexus.org (2018), climate change comes with heightened risks primarily in the United States whenever the human species are exposed to the vectors carrying the disease. The insect bites from mosquitoes and ticks also known as the vectors, transport the disease-causing pathogens. Whenever there is a change in the climate, there is always much uncertainty on the spread of vector-borne diseases (VBDs) like dengue fever, malaria, Zika virus and Lyme disease. The US is a good example where some regions experience lengthened warming, which as a result prolong the season for the mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus. According to statistics in the US as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), the season for mosquitoes has expanded to 76% of the major cities as a result of humidity and hot weather conditions (climatenexus.org, 2018). The same report indicates that of all the infectious diseases, Lyme disease, Chagas disease, schistosomiasis, dengue fever, yellow fever and leishmaniosis account for 17% (climatenexus.org, 2018). Reports from WHO have in the recent past outlined three primary components that define the VBDs occurrences. They are the vector and the host abundance; the local prevalence of the pathogens and the disease-causing parasites and disease resilience and the behavior of the human population (climatenexus.org, 2018).
The changes in the climate affect these three critical fac...