As part of the global effort to combat climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has issued its first annual Airborne Dust Bulletin to better understand how dust and sand storms impact humans – and how humans contribute too.
“Every year
As part of the global effort to combat climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has issued its first annual Airborne Dust Bulletin to better understand how dust and sand storms impact humans – and how humans contribute too.
“Every year, an estimated 2,000 million tons of dust is emitted into the atmosphere,” said Enric Terradellas, chairman of WMO’s atmospheric dust initiative and an expert on dust forecasting. “While much of this is a natural part of the Earth’s cycles, a significant amount is generated by human-induced factors, especially unsustainable land and water management.”
The authors warn that the new product, released on Wednesday, still relies on incomplete data sets and that means they needed to generate models to complete the research. What they found was that 2016 saw less windblown Saharan dust transported over the Atlantic, and more of it was shifted southward into West African nations at the Gulf of Guinea and the rest of Equatorial Africa.
The greatest anomalies were seen in countries that included Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic and east into Sudan, where the dust levels all were higher. Airborne dust is linked to health problems like respiratory ailments and meningitis, the WMO report notes, in addition to causing airport closures, dangerous road conditions, and disruptions for business, agriculture and schooling.
The public health implications of sand and dust storms – especially where climates are changing, and heat and drought are occurring – means that better forecasting can help protect lives. Dust kicked up by storms can affect people hundreds or thousands of kilometers away, creating a public health crisis.
Outbreaks across the sub-Saharan ‘meningitis belt’ region
Meningitis has seen a wicked resurgence across northern Nigeria in an outbreak that has now claimed almost 500 lives. Almost 5,000 cases have been reported since November, according to Chikwe Ihekweazu, the National Coordinator of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. Other nations including Togo, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Burkina Faso have reported meningitis cases as well.
These countries exist geographically in what epidemiologists and other public health officials call the “meningitis belt” of sub-Saharan Africa. Some 450 million people live in 26 countries affected by deadly meningitis outbreaks, and past outbreaks have claimed tens of thousands of lives.
The infection of the meninges – the thin lining layer of the brain and spinal cord – can be either viral or bacterial, but the latter is usually more serious. Bacterial meningococcal meningitis is fatal in 50 percent of