Rising global temperatures and the effectiveness of our bodies' immune systems are linked.

Warming planet poses threat to immune system

While there is little or no evidence that the Covid-19 outbreak was caused by climate change, there is an explanation as to why the planet's population might see an increase in such epidemics in the future, according to Time.

To understand the spread of diseases, we have to first take a look at how our bodies take the fight to pathogens.

Our natural immune system fights diseases by warming our bodies when they sense there are foreign invaders, such as viruses.

This is why our bodies induce a fever when pathogens -- micro-organisms that cause diseases -- enter our bodies.

Fevers allow us to increase our body temperature and making it less conducive for viruses and bacteria to survive.

Pathogens, such as viruses & bacteria, can adapt to warmer temperatures

But increasingly, as viruses and other pathogens are exposed to warmer temperatures outside of the human body, they start to adapt to warmer temperatures.

According to Arturo Casadevall, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, who was quoted in Time: “Every time we have a very hot day, we have a selection event.”

A selection event, such as a hot day, is when some pathogens might die, while some will survive.

This means pathogens become adapted to surviving and reproducing in higher temperatures, including inside our bodies.

This reduces the effectiveness of the fevers caused by our natural immune system and our bodies can lose their ability to fight diseases.

Bats naturally have high body temperatures

While bats have been suspected to be a source of the novel coronavirus, they are protected from the disease as their body temperatures regularly spike over 40°C.

In comparison, humans have a body temperature of about 37°C and this spikes by a few degrees when we are ill.

As the world's temperature rises, this allows bats to carry pathogens without suffering from diseases, but humans might become more susceptible to the same pathogens.

Rising temperatures will affect human health in multiple ways

Unfortunately, pathogens will not be the only organisms we will have to worry about with rising global temperatures.

Mosquitoes breed well in warmer temperatures and as areas that were once cooler become warmer, outbreaks of dengue fever have been reported.

Another public health issue that we will face with higher temperatures and higher humidity is heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

In Singapore, this will have adverse effects our bodies and our health as we already live in a tropical climate that can already be uncomfortably warm at times.

Infographic by Mothership