Global Warming to spread disease in South Asia
Pastor Dale Morgan
Thursday February 15, 9:36 PM Reuters
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Global Warming to spread disease in South Asia*
By Nita Bhalla
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Millions more South Asians will suffer from
diseases like malaria and cholera, or go hungry due to global warming,
but governments are not fully aware of the dangers, the World Health
Organisation said on Thursday.
A United Nations climate panel report last month predicted climate
change would result in temperatures rising by between 1.8 and 4.0
Celsius in the 21st century.
But the WHO's environmental health adviser for South Asia, Alex
Hildebrand, said little attention had been paid to the impact rising
temperatures would have on the health of the region's 1.4 billion people.
"There are so many impacts to human health such as vectoral and
water-borne diseases, thermal stress and dehydration and malnutrition,"
Hildebrand told Reuters in an interview.
"This issue needs to be prioritised by governments and health
professionals ... The link between climate change and human health is
still not known even at the highest levels of government. We need to
promote awareness on this."
South Asia, home to more than one-sixth of humanity, is considered
particularly vulnerable to climate change with low-lying countries such
as Bangladesh, Himalayan glaciers, desert areas and huge populations in
coastal cities.
Hildebrand said the predicted increase in temperature will lead to areas
such as the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal and Timpu, Bhutan's capital, and
parts of India becoming more susceptible to mosquito-borne diseases.
"Diseases like malaria, Japanese encephalitis, tick-borne diseases and
dengue fever will definitely thrive in warmer climates," he said.
South Asia gets around 20 million cases of malaria every year.
Greater frequency of droughts and heatwaves will not only adversely
affect crops but will also punish those who live with a scarcity of
water and push up rates of respiratory illness.
At the same time, increased rainfall will trigger damaging floods along
rivers.
"Floods will bring more drownings as well as water-borne diseases like
cholera and diarrhoea to many more places like Bangladesh and cities
like Mumbai and Chennai," he said.
Diahorrea already kills about 600,000 people every year in South Asia,
he added, and governments will struggle to cope with the extra health
burden.