Australian Climate change will bring diseases, food poisoning
Pastor Dale Morgan
Australian Climate change will bring diseases, food poisoning*
January 15, 2008 05:02pm
Article from: AAP
MORE rural Australians will suffer mosquito-borne diseases and food
poisoning as climate change causes temperatures to rise, an academic warns.
Professor Kevin Parton, from Charles Sturt University in Orange, NSW,
said rural Australians will be harder hit by climate change than their
metropolitan counterparts, as health services are more difficult to
access in the country.
"Most of indigenous Australians live in remote regions and they could
(also) be more vulnerable as a result of global warming," Professor
Parton said.
Professor Parton predicted mosquito-borne diseases such as Ross River
Virus will increase, in a co-authored article published in the latest
edition of the Australian Journal of Rural Health.
"As vectors that support and carry diseases, such as air, water and
organic movement, shift in response to climate change, so too will
health problems," he said.
"We could see both a worsening of existing diseases as well as the
spread of diseases usually associated with warmer regions, such as Ross
River and Barmah Forest viral infections, move to more temperate climates."
Cases of food poisoning would climb as the mercury rises, as would
deaths caused by weather extremes such as heatwaves and storms,
Professor Parton said.
He has applied for Federal Government funding to conduct further
research into the health, agricultural and economic effects of climate
change in areas such as the Atherton Tablelands in northern Queensland
and Dubbo in central NSW.