eea flag

Vibrio bacteria are found in low-salinity, relatively warm waters. It can cause a range of health problems for bathers, including gastroenteritis, wound infections, and blood poisoning (septicaemia). Rising sea surface temperatures have led to a higher percentage of Europe's coastline becoming suitable for pathogenic Vibrio spp., increasing disease transmission risk.

This indicator assesses how changing climate conditions affect the environmental suitability for the transmission of infectious Vibrio disease.

Caveats

Firstly, the infection rate applied here is based on the published data for the USA. A more accurate infection rate adjusted to the epidemiological situation in Europe would be instrumental to obtain a more precise picture of the impact of Vibrio illness across Europe. Secondly, the population datasets are incomplete for some countries. Thirdly, the current models of sea surface salinity (SSS) may be inaccurate in coastal regions, not fully capturing the SSS variability under heavy rainfall, river runoff and/or ice melting.

Reference information

Websites:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(24)00055-0/fulltext
https://www.lancetcountdown.org/europe/
Source:

Publication:

van Daalen, K. R., et al., 2024, The 2024 Europe report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: unprecedented warming demands unprecedented action, The Lancet Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(24)00055-0

 

Data sources:

  1. Sea surface temperature: Copernicus Marine Service, Global Ocean OSTIA Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice Reprocessed dataset
  2. Sea surface salinity data: Copernicus Marine Service, Mercator Ocean Reanalysis
  3. Coastline length: The World Factbook data

Additional reading:

  • Trinanes, J., and Martinez-Urtaza, J., 2021, Future scenarios of risk of Vibrio infections in a warming planet: a global mapping study, The Lancet Planetary Health 5(7), e426-e435. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00169-8
  • Semenza, J. C., et al., 2022, 2.4 Water-borne Diseases: EO System for the Coastal Monitoring of Non-Cholera Vibrios. In: Brazeau, S. and Ogden, N.H. (Eds.), Earth Observation, Public Health and One Health - Activities, Challenges and Opportunities,  CABI, Boston, USA. http://dx.doi.org/10.1079/9781800621183.0000
  • Murray, K. A., et al., 2020, Tracking infectious diseases in a warming world, BMJ 371, m3086. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3086
  • Semenza, J. C., et al., 2017, Environmental suitability of Vibrio infections in a warming climate: an early warning system, Environmental health perspectives 125(10), 107004. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp2198
    • Contributor:
    Lancet Countdown in Europe
    European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

    Published in Climate-ADAPT: Feb 17, 2021

    Date of publication:

    2024

    Keywords:
    Climate-sensitive disease
    Climate impacts:

    Non specific

    Adaptation Approaches:

    Observations and Scenarios, Vulnerability Assessment, Climate services

    Sectors:

    Health

    Geographic characterisation:

    Europe

    Macro-Transnational region:

    Baltic Sea

    Health impact:

    Climate-sensitive diseases

    Language preference detected

    Do you want to see the page translated into ?

    Exclusion of liability
    This translation is generated by eTranslation, a machine translation tool provided by the European Commission.