Water-borne and food-borne diseases

The evidence about the burden of infectious diseases in Bangladesh comes from government agencies, international agencies, and epidemiological investigations. The outbreaks of diarrhoeal diseases are associated with changes in precipitation patterns; heavy rainfall events are likely to compromise the supply of fresh water, thus increasing the risk of water borne diseases. They are associated with floods and water logging that increases the incidence of diarrhoea, cholera, skin, and eye diseases. Rising sea levels increase the risk of coastal flooding and necessitate population displacement, causing many other health related  problems such as diarrhoeal diseases and malnutrition.Indirectly transmitted infectious diseases are likely to be influenced by climate change, especially waterborne diseases.

Due to global warming, the pattern of rainfalls in Bangladesh has been changed both in intensity and timing. Many infectious diseases in Bangladesh now have a direct relationship with rainfall patterns. For example, some diarrhoeal diseases of Bangladesh are found to reach their peak during the rainy season. Heavy rainfall is known to have led to the outbreaks of Giardia and Cryptosporidium. Increased incidence of these diseases is likely to become a regular event in Bangladesh^.


The rise in temperatures also increases infectious disease incidence. Escherichia coli diarrhoea in Bangladesh has a seasonal peak that correlates with high temperatures. An increase in rotavirus, a diarrhoeal disease that primarily affects infants and children, has been linked to temperature rise and river level rise. In Dhaka, rotavirus cases have been reported to increase by 40.2% for each 1 °C increase in temperature above 29 °C. Rotavirus cases also increase by 5.5% per 10 centimetre river level rise. Further, cholera has been well studied and its incidence has been linked to rise in sea level height and temperatures, which produces the environment necessary for the cholera toxin-producing bacteria (Vibrio cholerae). Satellite data analyses of cholera in Bangladesh have proven that cholera epidemics are climate-linked. It has been concluded that rise of temperature due to global warming may increase diarrhoeal diseases in Bangladesh.