Health agencies warn of disease outbreak

The impact of climate changes on public health has never before become a much-debated issue not just among public health experts but among the general population also.As one comes face to face with the vagaries of weather in one's daily life, such as unseasonal and torrential rains or extremely hot and humid days, the risks to health, from deaths in extreme high temperatures to changing patterns of infectious diseases, have been brought in focus.Climate and weather already exert strong influences on health. The World Health Organisation says that continuing climate change will affect, in profoundly adverse ways, some of the most fundamental determinants of health: food, air and water. Also, areas with weak health infrastructure — mostly in developing countries — will be the least able to cope without assistance to prepare and respond, WHO warns.Catastrophic weather events, variable climates that affect food and water supplies, new patterns of infectious disease outbreaks, and emerging diseases linked to ecosystem changes, are all associated with global warming.India too has been witnessing several unexpected weather events. The heaviest rain fall in the last hundred years occurred in Mumbai in July 2005, which resulted in massive flooding and heavy loss of lives. The heat wave experienced by Orissa in June in 2005 should also be seen as part of the changing climatic patterns. More recently, the heavy rains experienced in the thick of summer in Kerala – a phenomenon not witnessed in the past 100 years — and which led to massive crop loss, has also triggered discussions on how climate changes should be factored in when planning disaster management.

The Hindu, April 20, 2008

#end