Climate change already killing 150,000 a year in low-income economies: WHO

Climate change has begun to affect human health, leading to a rise in cases related to stomach ailments and vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue. This has been indicated in a report in the recent bulletin of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The apex global health body reckons that about 150,000 deaths occur annually in low-income countries due to the adverse effects of climate change, chiefly malnutrition due to climate change-driven crop failures, stomach diseases and malaria.

The report says that the rise in atmospheric temperature and sea levels, coupled with extreme weather events, notably higher frequency of floods, cause water logging and water contamination, leading to higher incidence of diarrhoeal ailments. The geographical spread of vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue is also projected to increase.

Besides, the dynamics of communicable diseases may undergo a change, WHO has cautioned. The poorer countries will be affected relatively more because of their deficient health systems and paucity of resources.

Higher average temperatures as a consequence of global warming could prolong peak periods for vector-communicated diseases. Besides, extreme weather events, including cyclones and floods, can create conditions ideal for the spread of several diseases, including diarrhoea and cholera, the report states. Dengue epidemics are already occurring more frequently and are now reported even from hilly countries like Bhutan and Nepal.

The report notes that most countries in the Southeast Asian region, home to 26 per cent of the world’s population and 30 per cent of the world’s poor, lack sufficient plans for disease and vector surveillance and control. They also do not have adequate health systems in place to serve as barriers against the adverse effects of climate change on human health.

The UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has already warned that parts of Asia are likely to experience serious adverse effects of climate change because the economies of most countries in this region rely on agriculture and natural resources. People living in vulnerable, yet densely populated, areas are usually disproportionately affected by the consequences, as has been shown by the impact of the devastating floods in Bihar in 2009.

According to the Asian Development Bank, in countries like Indonesia and Thailand, the want of adequate measures to counter the ill-effects of climate change could result in economic losses of 6-7 per cent of their combined gross domestic product by 2100, compared to a loss of some 2.6 per cent of the world’s GDP during this period.

Research is underway in India and Nepal on assessing the impact of climate change on vector-borne and water-borne diseases. It will be extended to other countries in the region, subsequently. Its outcome could guide the development of integrated national and regional plans of action for public health interventions to mitigate the impact of climate change on health.

“If all countries of the region make a combined effort to tackle the effects of climate change on health, the resulting evidence base, emerging best practices and lessons learnt will make a valuable contribution to global health,” the report says.