Professor Camilo Mora feels the effects of climate change on his knees.
During a visit to his native Colombia in 2014, heavy rains caused the worst flooding his hometown had seen in decades and boosted the mosquito population. A mosquito bit Mora, transferring the Chikungunya virus and making him a patient during an unprecedented outbreak in the region.
His joints still ache today. In a study published Monday, Mora and his colleagues at the University of Hawaii examined tens of thousands of studies to find out the global impacts of climate change on infectious diseases that affect humans. They determined that nearly 220 infectious diseases -- 58% of the total studied -- had become bigger threats because of climate hazards.
Humans have come along and changed things, and systems have been evolving for millions of years, Mora said. We are punching nature, but nature is punching us back. The study, which analyzed more than 3,200 scientific works, is one of the most thorough examinations of the effects of climate change on diseases worldwide.
It is only in the recent past of infectious disease research that we really focus on climate change as a driver of infectious disease, said Jessica Leibler, an environmental epidemiologist at the Boston University School of Public Health who wasn't involved in the research.
She said that fifty-eight percent seems like a really high number, but it reflects the reality that infectious diseases are driven by what is going on in our environment.