[08-07-2025] Mirza Mienur Meher Publishes Review Article on the Global Health Impact of Heat Waves
Mirza Mienur Meher has published a significant review article titled “Deciphering the Impact of Heat Wave in the Global Surge of Infectious Diseases” in the esteemed Elsevier journal Hygiene and Environmental Health Advances (Impact Factor: 2.7, CiteScore: 4.0, Q1 journal).
The article provides a comprehensive exploration of how extreme heat events — increasingly recognized as one of the most critical manifestations of climate change — influence global infectious disease dynamics.
According to the review, heat waves are extreme climatic episodes characterized by prolonged periods of abnormally elevated temperatures beyond usual weather patterns. In recent years, record-breaking temperatures have been documented worldwide, particularly across South Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Europe alone witnessed over 70,000 additional deaths attributed to heat waves in 2022.
Mirza Mienur Meher’s work emphasizes that these extreme climatic conditions pose profound health risks and are strongly linked to the rising incidence of infectious diseases. By synthesizing evidence from epidemiological, environmental, and laboratory studies, the review highlights the multifaceted relationship between heat waves and disease transmission.
The study details how heat waves create favorable environments for the survival and propagation of various pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and fungi, accelerating microbial biodiversity and evolutionary processes by altering ecosystem structures. Moreover, elevated temperatures enhance the activity and distribution of insect vectors, increasing transmission rates of vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever, chikungunya, malaria, Zika virus, Lyme disease, and West Nile fever.
The review also explores potential links between heat waves and the emergence of antimicrobial resistance, as well as the rise of food-, air-, and waterborne infections, often exacerbated by human behavioral changes during extreme heat events.
Mirza Mienur Meher’s article provides a comprehensive understanding of how heat waves influence infectious disease dynamics and calls for interdisciplinary research, enhanced disease surveillance systems, and globally coordinated climate–health strategies to mitigate future risks.
The journal Hygiene and Environmental Health Advances is a peer-reviewed Elsevier publication, indexed in major databases such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Scopus, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI).
This publication marks an important contribution to the growing field of climate–health research, reinforcing the urgent need for integrated global efforts to safeguard public health in an era of accelerating climate change.
Read the full article in Elsevier’s Hygiene and Environmental Health Advances-https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heha.2025.100135