This year’s World Health Day (April 7) highlights the idea
that global warming carries more health risks now than ever and the situation
is getting worse, as weather experts forecast raised temperature for the years
to come.
The World Health Organization has already warned that heavy
rains and warmer temperatures facilitate the spread of germs such as bacteria
and viruses.
"The health impacts of climate change are already
evident in different ways: more people are dying from excessive heat than
before, changes are occurring in the incidence of vector-borne diseases, and
the pattern of natural disasters is altering," says the WHO.
At least 150,000 more people are dying each year of
malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition and floods, all of which can be traced to
climate change, according to Shigery Omi, the head of the WHO’s Western Pacific
office. More than half of those deaths register in Asia,
Omi said, according to Reuters.
“Malaria-carrying mosquitos are now found in areas where
there was no malaria before. For dengue, there are many other factors
responsible for the rise of the mosquitos. But I am sure that climate change is
certainly playing one of the many roles, that much we can say,” Omi said.
It is already a fact that global warming is happening
because the earth’s atmosphere is becoming overloaded with human-created
“greenhouse gases,” carbon dioxide and methane. "Scientists have
established that the changes in global climate being experienced by the world
today are, in all likelihood, due to over a century of indiscriminate pumping
of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by developed
countries in their pursuit of economic development," says Dr Chukwumerije
Okereke, a senior researcher from the University of East Anglia's Centre for
Climate Change Research.
According to WHO Director- General Dr. Margaret Chan, continuing
change will affect some of the most fundamental determinants of health: food,
air and water. Also, malnutrition, lack of access to basic sanitation including
access to safe drinking water, and pollution are known factors to aggravate the
risk to respiratory disease including TB.
Only “through increased collaboration, the global community
will be better prepared to cope with climate-related health challenges
worldwide,” WHO warns on World Health Day. It is a day to mark and remind us
all to contribute in developing an improved strategy for an early solution to
this global warming and the risk associated to human health due to its effects.
"The dialogue on global warming and related health
challenges aims to better prepare countries to strengthen surveillance and
control of infectious diseases, as well as to ensure safer use of diminishing
water supplies and promote better coordination in emergencies," says the
WHO.