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Twenty Countries Ask EU to Prepare for Climate Change Health Hazards 

A woman stands on the edge of the Garzweiler lignite open cast mine near Luetzerath, western Germany, on November 12, 2022, as in background can be seen wind engines. (AFP)
A woman stands on the edge of the Garzweiler lignite open cast mine near Luetzerath, western Germany, on November 12, 2022, as in background can be seen wind engines. (AFP)
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Twenty Countries Ask EU to Prepare for Climate Change Health Hazards 

A woman stands on the edge of the Garzweiler lignite open cast mine near Luetzerath, western Germany, on November 12, 2022, as in background can be seen wind engines. (AFP)
A woman stands on the edge of the Garzweiler lignite open cast mine near Luetzerath, western Germany, on November 12, 2022, as in background can be seen wind engines. (AFP)

A large majority of European Union countries want stronger EU action to prepare for the health consequences of climate change and global warming's potential to spread vector-borne diseases, a document seen by Reuters showed.

Europe is experiencing severe health impacts as a result of the changing climate. Around 61,000 people are estimated to have died in sweltering European heatwaves last summer, suggesting countries' heat preparedness efforts are falling well short.

In a joint paper, 20 of the EU's 27 member countries including Croatia, Germany, Greece, Malta and the Netherlands, have urged the EU to increase its surveillance of the threats to health and healthcare systems posed by extreme weather, to help countries prepare.

The EU should also draft plans for infections of zoonotic and climate-sensitive vector-borne diseases, and strengthen its early warning and response system for if disease-spreading vectors are detected, the countries said.

"Unless proactive measures are taken, it is a matter of time before certain preventable infectious diseases, which are currently more prevalent in other regions, become increasingly common occurrences within the EU," the paper said.

It was also backed by Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia.

Climate change is increasing the risk that infectious diseases will spread into new areas - including in Europe, as summers become hotter and longer, and increased flooding creates favorable conditions for spreading infectious disease.

An example of this is the tiger mosquito, which is now present in 337 regions in Europe - more than double the number a decade ago, said the paper, which was reported earlier on Monday by the Financial Times.

EU countries' health ministers will discuss the paper in a meeting next week. The EU is currently drafting its first climate risk assessment, due to be published next year as a basis for future policies to cope with climate hazards like heatwaves and wildfires.

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Ozempic Hailed as 'Fountain of Youth' that Slows Aging

The is available under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic (Photo by Reuters)
The is available under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic (Photo by Reuters)
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Ozempic Hailed as 'Fountain of Youth' that Slows Aging

The is available under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic (Photo by Reuters)
The is available under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic (Photo by Reuters)

The anti-obesity drug Ozempic could slow down ageing and has “far-reaching benefits” beyond what was imagined, researchers have suggested.

Multiple studies have found semaglutide (available under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic) reduced the risk of death in people who were obese or overweight and had cardiovascular disease without diabetes, The Independent reported.

Responding to research published in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology, Professor Harlan M Krumholz from the Yale School of Medicine, said: “Semaglutide, perhaps by improving cardiometabolic health, has far-reaching benefits beyond what we initially imagined.”

He added: “These ground-breaking medications are poised to revolutionise cardiovascular care and could dramatically enhance cardiovascular health.”

Multiple reports also quoted Professor Krumholz saying: “Is it a fountain of youth?”

He said: “I would say if you’re improving someone’s cardiometabolic health substantially, then you are putting them in a position to live longer and better.

“It’s not just avoiding heart attacks. These are health promoters. It wouldn’t surprise me that improving people’s health this way actually slows down the ageing process.”

The studies, presented at the European Society of Cardiology Conference 2024 in London, were produced from the Select trial which studied 17,604 people aged 45 or older who were overweight or obese and had established cardiovascular disease but not diabetes.

They received 2.4 mg of semaglutide or a placebo and were tracked for more than three years.

A total of 833 participants died during the study with 5 percent of the deaths were related to cardiovascular causes and 42 per cent from others.

Infection was the most common cause death beyond cardiovascular, but it occurred at a lower rate in the semaglutide group than the placebo group.

People using the weight-loss drug were just as likely to catch Covid-19, but they were less likely to die from it – 2.6 percent dying among those on semaglutide versus 3.1 per cent on the placebo.

Researchers found women experienced fewer major adverse cardiovascular events, but semaglutide “consistently reduced the risk” of adverse cardiovascular outcomes regardless of sex.

Dr Benjamin Scirica, lead author of one of the studies and a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Harvard Medical School, said: “The robust reduction in non-cardiovascular death, and particularly infections deaths, was surprising and perhaps only detectable because of the Covid-19-related surge in non-cardiovascular deaths.

“These findings reinforce that overweight and obesity increases the risk of death due to many etiologies, which can be modified with potent incretin-based therapies like semaglutide.”

Dr Jeremy Samuel Faust, an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, praised the researchers for adapting the study to look at Covid-19 when the pandemic started.

He said the findings that the weight-loss drug to reduce Covid-19 mortality rates were “akin to a vaccine against the indirect effects of a pathogen.”