Environmental Health in Israel | 2014

This study found that even a single day in which the heat burden exceeded this threshold is sufficient to cause an increase in mortality rate. This study did not examine implications of climate change on morbidity rates that did not culminate in death. Another study conducted in Israel reports a 1.47% increase in the number of visits to hospital emergency departments with each increase of 1 °C in ambient temperature during heat waves. Research conducted several years ago in Israel found that an increase in temperature is a positive predictive factor for size of the mosquito population. The rise in the number of mosquitoes, a vector for West Nile fever and other diseases, was found to be a risk factor for disease transmission. Similarly, another study conducted in Israel found a connection between the rise in water temperature in fishponds generated by heat waves and an increase in morbidity caused by Vibrio vulnificus bacteria. A study conducted in collaboration with the MoH and published in 2013 described an association between the number of reported cases of West Nile fever, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, and environmental temperature. This study, examining the impact of various climate factors on the outbreak of West Nile fever in Europe in 2010, found that morbidity in northern Europe increased about two to four weeks after the rise in temperature. In Israel and countries located in southern Europe there is a shorter time-lag between increase in temperature and onset of illness. These data indicate that while in northern Europe a rise in temperature is a predictive indicator for taking preventive action, in Israel the time-lag is liable to be either too short or too late for effective warning. There has been an increase in morbidity from Campylobacter bacteria in recent years in Israel. Campylobacter is pathogenic for human beings, causing a range of malignant symptoms in the digestive system. A study examining the impact of external temperature on reported morbidity in Israel between the years 1999–2010 found that high temperatures throughout the year are linked to greater morbidity from Campylobacter. With regard to the general population, an increase in temperature of 1 °C under the threshold temperature of 25 °C raises the rate of morbidity from Campylobacter by 3.8%, while an increase of 1 °C above this threshold temperature raises the rate of morbidity from Campylobacter by 15.4%. The study also found that different age groups have different thermal sensitivity thresholds to morbidity from Campylobacter, and concluded that this finding is relevant to health impacts of global warming. The MoH collects data on the incidence of morbidity from various factors, including morbidity from malaria, West Nile fever and cutaneous leishmaniasis, in weekly epidemiological reports available on the Ministry’s website. These reports provide data on morbidity based on continuous monitoring of the population in Israel. These data are likely to indicate trends in the incidence of disease following gradual or extreme change in climate conditions. In 2014, researchers from the MoH reported that after decades of small, intermittent outbreaks, nearly 1,400 cases of West Nile fever were reported in Israel between 2000 and 2012. Marked increases in the reported human cases coincided with the identification of new viral genotypes in the mosquito population (Figure 1). - 75 - Climate Change