Case 11 : Crypto Climate Creep: The Movement of Tropical Infectious Disease to the Arctic

• Main Authors: Sachal, Sukhmeet Singh, Deilgat, Michel, Speechley, Mark
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Scholarship@Western 2019
• Subjects: Climate change; Cryptosporidium; One Health Model; systems thinking; zoonotic infectious diseases; Arctic Region; Indigenous peoples; Arctic; Canada; Inuvik; Inuvik Region; Nunavik; bearded seal; Beluga; Beluga*; caribou; inuit
• Online Access: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/westernpublichealthcases/vol2019/iss2019/17; https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/westernpublichealthcases/article/1103/viewcontent/2019_Case_11_Crypto_Climate_Creep.pdf

Dr. Jacob Sanders was excited to attend the Inuvik Sunrise Festival and see friends, old and new. The evening was cut short due to the snowstorm, but the next morning, Jacob was very ill. Not knowing the cause, he assumed it was the food: Muktuk (beluga blubber), beaver, caribou, bearded seal, or blue mussels. Severely dehydrated from diarrhea, he was admitted to Inuvik Regional Hospital. Insufficient lab equipment at the hospital meant the stool samples had to be sent far away to Nunavik, Quebec where the public health unit had an onsite molecular test to diagnose the problem. When the diagnosis was finally revealed, he was shocked to learn it was a disease unknown to the Inuvik region, and nearly unseen for the past decade— cryptosporidiosis. Cryptosporidiosis is a zoonotic infectious disease transmitted by a microscopic parasite known as Cryptosporidium. This transmission occurs via oocysts that can contaminate food or water sources. Symptoms of cryptosporidiosis include diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, dehydration, fever, fatigue, and weight loss. Although it is typically a tropical disease, it was first discovered in 2013 in the Canadian Arctic in Nunavik, Quebec. The recognition of widespread human cryptosporidiosis in the Canadian Arctic is a public health concern because of its possible long-term effects on the growth and development of children in Inuit communities who already face many other challenges. Climate change has been linked to the emergence of new infectious diseases in Northern Canada. Increased precipitation from climate change will result in increased water turbidity from high water velocity. As a result, this will mix and transport more pathogens into water sources and increase the risk of water-borne infectious disease transmission. The warmer temperatures associated with climate change will also expand the range of habitats for animal hosts and allow them to migrate further north. Consequently, this will cause animal hosts to proliferate and will increase the transmission of ...