Publications by authors named "Amir Sapkota"

The traditional approaches rely solely on temperature measures to assess heat-related health risks; but there is a growing trend towards using bio-meteorological indices for a more comprehensive evaluation. However, the adoption of bio-meteorological indices in developing countries is considerably limited. Therefore, this study compares bio-meteorological index, the maximum Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) with single-exposure maximum temperature (Tmax) for assessing heat-related mortality risks in Ahmedabad city of India.

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Introduction: Smoke plumes from the 2023 Canadian wildfires severely impacted air quality across the Eastern and Midwestern USA. However, a comprehensive health impact assessment is lacking in this large region. We investigated the association between wildfire-related air pollutants and the risk of mortality and hospitalization among hemodialysis patients in 22 heavily impacted states in the Eastern and Midwestern USA.

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The global burden of dengue disease is escalating under the influence of climate change, with India contributing a third of the total. The non-linearity and regional heterogeneity inherent in the climate-dengue relationship and the lack of consistent data makes it difficult to make useful predictions for effective disease prevention. The current study investigates these non-linear climate-dengue links in Pune, a dengue hotspot region in India with a monsoonal climate and presents a model framework for predicting both the near-term and future dengue mortalities.

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Article Synopsis
  • Intense wildfires are increasingly impacting air quality, raising concerns about potential negative effects on cardiopulmonary health for people exposed to smoke, particularly in the Eastern US.
  • A study aimed to examine the relationship between smoke from wildfires in Western Canada and respiratory diseases in various demographic groups in Eastern US populations, using data from the University of Maryland Medical System.
  • Findings showed significantly higher rates of cardiopulmonary clinical encounters during "hotspot days" with elevated PM2.5 levels, indicating a correlation between increased pollution and health issues, especially during notable air quality deteriorations in June 2023.
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  • Tobacco use alters the oral microbiome, affecting the diversity and abundance of bacterial communities in smokers and smokeless tobacco users compared to non-users over a 4-month period.
  • Cigarette and smokeless tobacco users showed a higher diversity of bacteria, with more Firmicutes and fewer Proteobacteria, while non-users had more beneficial genera like Actinomyces and Neisseria.
  • Some bacterial species shifted significantly over time, and opportunistic pathogens were identified in tobacco users, providing new insights into the oral health impacts of different tobacco products.
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  • Climate change is causing global temperature increases and extreme weather, leading to heightened heat stress, which poses serious public health risks.
  • Studies primarily focus on air temperature, but the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) provides a more comprehensive measure of heat strain.
  • The Asia-Pacific region shows rising air temperatures from 1990 to 2019, but UTCI trends are less severe, suggesting other factors may mitigate heat stress despite increasing temperatures, with significant seasonal variations linked to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
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Spatial analysis of infectious diseases can play an important role in mapping the spread of diseases and can support policy making at local level. Moreover, identification of disease clusters based on local geography and landscape forms the basis for disease control and prevention. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the spatial-temporal variations, hotspot areas, and potential risk factors of infectious diseases (including Viral Hepatitis, Typhoid and Diarrhea) in Ahmedabad city of India.

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Radiology is a major contributor to health care's impact on climate change, in part due to its reliance on energy-intensive equipment as well as its growing technological reliance. Delivering modern patient care requires a robust informatics team to move images from the imaging equipment to the workstations and the health care system. Radiology informatics is the field that manages medical imaging IT.

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In the Asia-Pacific region (APR), extreme precipitation is one of the most critical climate stressors, affecting 60% of the population and adding pressure to governance, economic, environmental, and public health challenges. In this study, we analyzed extreme precipitation spatiotemporal trends in APR using 11 different indices and revealed the dominant factors governing precipitation amount by attributing its variability to precipitation frequency and intensity. We further investigated how these extreme precipitation indices are influenced by El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) at a seasonal scale.

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Background: Nonadherence to hemodialysis appointments could potentially result in health complications that can influence morbidity and mortality. We examined the association between different types of inclement weather and hemodialysis appointment adherence.

Methods: We analyzed health records of 60,135 patients with kidney failure who received in-center hemodialysis treatment at Fresenius Kidney Care clinics across the Northeastern US counties during 2001-2019.

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Objectives: Diarrheal disease continues to be a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. We investigated how anomalies in monthly average temperature, precipitation, and surface water storage (SWS) impacted bacterial, and viral diarrhea morbidity in Taiwan between 2004 and 2015.

Methods: A multivariate analysis using negative binomial generalized estimating equations was employed to quantify age-specific and cause-specific cases of diarrhea associated with anomalies in temperature, precipitation, and SWS.

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Background: Diarrhea remains a common infectious disease caused by various risk factors in developing countries. This study investigated the incidence rate and temporal associations between diarrhea and meteorological determinants in five regions of Surabaya, Indonesia.

Method: Monthly diarrhea records from local governmental health facilities in Surabaya and monthly means of weather variables, including average temperature, precipitation, and relative humidity from Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency were collected from January 2018 to September 2020.

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Climate change is adversely impacting the burden of diarrheal diseases. Despite significant reduction in global prevalence, diarrheal disease remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among young children in low- and middle-income countries. Previous studies have shown that diarrheal disease is associated with meteorological conditions but the role of large-scale climate phenomena such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and monsoon anomaly is less understood.

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Background: Head and neck cancer (HNC) is a major cause of cancer morbidity and mortality in Nepal. The study aims to investigate differences in risk factors for head and neck cancer by sex in Nepal.

Methods: A hospital-based case-control study was conducted at the B.

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Background: The ongoing climate change will elevate the incidence of diarrheal in 2030-2050 in Asia, including Taiwan. This study investigated associations between meteorological factors (temperature, precipitation) and burden of age-cause-specific diarrheal diseases in six regions of Taiwan using 13 years of (2004-2016) population-based data.

Methods: Weekly cause-specific diarrheal and meteorological data were obtained from 2004 to 2016.

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Introduction: The incidence of diarrhea, a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in low-income countries such as Nepal, is temperature-sensitive, suggesting it could be associated with climate change. With climate change fueled increases in the mean and variability of temperature and precipitation, the incidence of water and food-borne diseases are increasing, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This national-level ecological study was undertaken to provide evidence linking weather and climate with diarrhea incidence in Nepal.

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Background: Increasing number of studies have linked air pollution exposure with renal function decline and disease. However, there is a lack of data on its impact among end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients and its potential modifying effect from extreme heat events (EHE).

Methods: Fresenius Kidney Care records from 28 selected northeastern US counties were used to pool daily all-cause mortality (ACM) and all-cause hospital admissions (ACHA) counts.

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Background: Typical thermoregulatory responses to elevated temperatures among healthy individuals include reduced blood pressure and perspiration. Individuals with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) are susceptible to systemic fluctuations caused by ambient temperature changes that may increase morbidity and mortality. We investigated whether pre-dialysis systolic blood pressure (preSBP) and interdialytic weight gain (IDWG) can independently mediate the association between ambient temperature, all-cause hospital admissions (ACHA), and all-cause mortality (ACM).

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Background: Infections with nontyphoidal Salmonella cause an estimated 19,336 hospitalizations each year in the United States. Sources of infection can vary by state and include animal and plant-based foods, as well as environmental reservoirs. Several studies have recognized the importance of increased ambient temperature and precipitation in the spread and persistence of Salmonella in soil and food.

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Ongoing climate variability and change is impacting pollen exposure dynamics among sensitive populations. However, pollen data that can provide beneficial information to allergy experts and patients alike remains elusive. The lack of high spatial resolution pollen data has resulted in a growing interest in using phenology information that is derived using satellite observations to infer key pollen events including start of pollen season (SPS), timing of peak pollen season (PPS), and length of pollen season (LPS).

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Hairdressers may be differentially exposed to phthalates through hair salon services provided and products used, yet no U.S. studies have investigated these exposures in this population.

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Food insecurity is a key global health challenge that is likely to be exacerbated by climate change. Though climate change is associated with an increased frequency of extreme weather events, little is known about how multiple environmental shocks in close succession interact to impact household health and well-being. In this paper, we assess how earthquake exposure followed by monsoon rainfall anomalies affect food insecurity in Nepal.

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In recent years, there have been considerable changes in the distribution of diseases that are potentially tied to ongoing climate variability. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the incidence of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) and climatic factors in an Iranian city (Isfahan), which had the highest incidence of CL in the country. CL incidence and meteorological data were acquired from April 2010 to March 2017 (108 months) for Isfahan City.

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