Context – For the first time ever at COP 28, the impacts climate change on health has been discussed.
Recently IPCC report for the first time ever has noted that climate change has adversely affected the physical and mental health of people globally.
- Climate change has harmful impacts on human health, ranging from mortality from extreme events, morbidity from increasing temperatures and heat waves, malnutrition and disease susceptibility.
- World Health Organization predicts an estimated 250,000 additional deaths per year from heat stress, malnutrition, dengue, malaria, and other vector-borne diseases between 2030 and 2050.
- Floods in Pakistan last year, for example, led to a 400%increase in malaria cases in the country, the report said. The disease has also spread into the highlands of Africa that previously had been cold for mosquitoes.
- In 2022, 44 countries reported cholera cases, a 25% increase over 2021, according to the WHO, which noted the role played by cyclones, floods, and drought in cutting off access to clean water and helping bacteria to thrive.
- Similarly, people are losing their homes and loved ones as conflicts flare over scarce resources in places like the Lake Chad Basin, and they are redlining on stress as we deal with the prolonged impacts of COVID-19 and the spectre of other zoonotic pathogens that will rise as heat and environmental damage push animals out of their traditional zones.
What can we do?
- Develop treatments for climate-sensitive diseases like vector-borne diseases, including leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness, Chagas and dengue.
- Increase sustainable R&D and manufacturing to explore more sustainable manufacturing processes that lower waste and the use or generation of hazardous substances, with the goal of reducing the negative impact of drug discovery, development, and production on human health and the environment.
- More focus on the neglected patients like poor and marginalized people living in low- and middle-income countries. These are the same communities being disproportionately impacted by climate change.
- Reduce our carbon emissions and environmental footprint.