The risk of death increases following an extreme rain event, including death from heart and lung problems, according to a study.

As climate change makes short-term precipitation events more extreme and more frequent, new evidence suggests a clear link between these events and their adverse health effects, particularly the spread of infectious diseases, researchers said. of a study covering more than 62,000 precipitation events. events around the world.

The study by the team, including researchers from the German Center for Environmental Health Research, provides a global perspective on how extreme precipitation can impact health, they said.

They looked at data on daily deaths and rainfall in 645 locations in 34 countries and regions, recorded from 1980 to 2020. In total, more than 100 million deaths from all causes, and more than 31 million and 11.5 million deaths due to heart and heart problems. pulmonary conditions, respectively, were analyzed.

A day of extreme rain, likely to recur in the following five years, was associated with an 8% increase in deaths from any cause in the 14 days following the extreme weather event .

Such an event was also associated with a 5 percent increase in cardiovascular deaths and a nearly 30 percent increase in pulmonary mortality in the fortnight following the rains.

“Daily precipitation intensity is associated with variable health effects, with extreme events linked to increasing relative risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality. Observed associations varied depending on local climate and urban infrastructure “, write the authors in the study published in the British Medical Journal.

Acknowledging the limitations of the research, the team said the study was observational and therefore could not draw causal conclusions. Additionally, the sites analyzed were mainly in East Asia, Europe and North America, they added.

The findings, however, highlighted the need for coordinated public health strategies targeting the health impacts of extreme precipitation, the authors said.

“This is particularly important given the well-established trend of increasing precipitation intensity in the short term due to climate change,” they wrote.

(This report was published as part of the union’s auto-generated thread. Other than the title, no changes were made to the copy by ABP Live.)