Catastrophic impact of climate change on health
Like this woman and the little child in her lap seen in the photo, cyclone Aila has displaced many people leaving them insecure to food, shelter and safe water. Continuing climate change affects profoundly the fundamental determinants of health, which are often neglected. Photo: Tareq Salahuddin
Climate change is now regarded as the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. Enormous health hazards ranging from large number of deaths through natural disasters to emergence of vector-borne diseases, water and food insecurity, vulnerable shelter and human settlements, population migration etc. are already evident. If timely action, appropriate public health policy to combat climate change is not taken, more human lives will be destroyed by frequent catastrophic events and health will be endangered severely. Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable nations to climate change is likely to face the devastating impact of climate change on health. The country is already experiencing more frequent number of cyclones like Sidr and Aila at short interval. Flood is a common phenomenon here. Theses extreme climatic events have already claimed the huge toll of human lives, marooned many people. The World Health Organisation published findings as early as 2000 showing that global warming caused 150,000 deaths in the world each year — those would not have occurred in a normal context. They expect that the number will rise to 500,000 deaths per year by 2030. Yet the impact of climate change on our health is a less-pronounced issue. Many think it as a marginal problem. In addition to death, climate change contributes to the global burden of disease, and this contribution is expected to grow in the future. There is an apparent increase in many vector-borne diseases which survive better in changing climate. Climate change dramatically alters the patterns and rate of spread of certain diseases like malaria and dengue; as well as other major killers such as malnutrition and diarrhoea. These climate-sensitive diseases are among the largest global killers. Diarrhoea, malaria and protein-energy malnutrition alone caused more than 3 million deaths globally in 2002. Statistics say that 20 to 70 million more people could be living in malarial regions due to climate change by 2080. Continuing climate change will affect, in profoundly adverse ways, some of the most fundamental determinants of health: food, air and water. water and food security will added load to the global disease burden in indirect way. Increasing global temperatures affect levels and seasonal patterns of both man-made and natural air-borne particles, such as plant pollen, which can trigger asthma. About 300 million people suffer from asthma, and 255 000 people died of the disease in 2005. Asthma deaths are expected to increase by almost 20 percent in the next 10 years if urgent actions to curb climate change and prepare for its consequences are not taken. Intense short-term fluctuations in temperature can also seriously affect health — causing heat stress (hyperthermia) or extreme cold (hypothermia) — and lead to increased death rates from heart and respiratory diseases. Although there is tremendous and terrible impact on public health, there is almost no distinct intervention to fight the health related consequences of climate change. The health professional and policy makers have not yet distinctly prioritised the problem in terms of adopting public health strategy and allocation of fund coping with climate change. Experts urged to well-prepare the health system for any emergency. However, effects on health of climate change will be indeed felt by most populations in the next decades and put the lives and well being of billions of people at increased risk. We need to act now to prevent these avoidable dangers. Otherwise, death and injury from extreme climatic events and other obvious health hazards like malnutrition, diarrhea, vector-borne diseases will worsen and cause disastrous effect on global health. E-mail: rajibssmc@gmail.com
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