Heat exposure, one of the impacts of climate change, has been found to affect health both directly and indirectly. Experts say it can cause heat strokes, dehydration and accelerated deaths from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Some indirect impacts of heat due to climate change include increased incidence of vector-borne illnesses such as malaria and Zika virus, which cause severe birth defects in pregnant women.
Research suggests a link between severe heat and poor delivery outcomes which are accentuated by stillbirths.
Africa has seen 10 hottest years since 2005. The continent experienced a temperature difference from the 1910–2000 average of 0.96 degrees celsius in 2022. It has not had a temperature this low since 2014. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says that since 1910, the average annual temperature in Africa has increased by 0.13 degrees celsius every 10 years.
During periods of extreme heat, hospital admissions and fatalities from chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease uniformly rise, according to a research.
During the warm season (May-September), a one-degree celsius rise in temperature the week before delivery is linked to a 6 percent increase in risk, equivalent to four more stillbirths for every 10,000 live births.
Climate change and stillbirths
The number of stillbirths in Sub-Saharan Africa rose over 11 years from about 850,000 deaths in 2010 to over 888,000 in 2021. Apart from heat waves, other factors that have been found to cause stillbirths are complications with placenta, bleeding during or before labour, pre-eclampsia, and infections.
The burden of malaria globally is still disproportionately heavy in the African region, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). About 95 percent of all malaria cases and 96 percent of all malaria deaths occurred in the region in 2021.
Climate change, including variations in temperature, precipitation patterns and humidity, significantly impact mosquito lifetime, growth of malaria parasites and, ultimately, malaria transmission.
Warmer temperatures allow the mosquito parasite’s life cycle to change, forcing it to grow more quickly. This increases transmission and the burden of illness.
In agreement with this, a health expert, Dr Marin Egbis, maintained that during the hot season, people typically neglected malaria prevention measures because of high temperatures. She gave an example of a family risking malaria by opening its windows and doors during hot weather.
She also noted that while other factors could contribute to or cause stillbirths, heat exposure was one of them. She told Dataphyte that pregnant women frequently required normal temperatures and that extreme weather could cause dehydration in them.
The consequences of more than 1.5° C global warming would be severe for sub-Saharan Africa, which has witnessed more frequent and violent climate extremes over the past decades, experts say.
Regions in Africa could have more hot evenings and longer and more frequent heat waves. Temperature increases in the region are projected to be higher than the world mean temperatures.
A medical practitioner, Dr Jeffrey Ajoko, asserted that malaria-transmitting mosquito thrived during dry seasons, noting that this was why it was common in Africa, especially Sub-Saharan Africa.
Ajoko said Sub-Saharan Africa was a malaria belt as the disease thrived in warm climates, stressing that the likelihood of vector-borne diseases surviving often increased with a rising temperature.
This report was produced in fulfilment of the UNESCO & CIJ London Climate Change in News Media project facilitated by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development.