The Year 2008: A Breakthrough Year for Health Protection from Climate Change?

Abstract

imately 60,000 in weather-related natural disasters. 4–6 A warmer and more variable climate threatens to lead to higher levels of some air pollutants; increase transmission of diseases from poor water, sanitation, and hygiene; and increase the hazards of extreme weather. Taken together, climate change threatens to slow, halt, or reverse the progress that the global health community is now making against many of these hazards. In the long run, however, the health impacts from the gradual build-up of pressure on the natural, economic, and social systems that sustain health, and which are already under stress in much of the developing world, may contribute as much, if not more, as acute shocks such as natural disasters or disease epidemics. These slow stresses include reductions and seasonal changes in the availability of fresh water, regional drops in food production, and rising sea levels. Each of these changes has the potential to force population displacement and to increase the risks of civil conflict. 7 Health effects are expected to be more severe for elderly people and people with infirmities or preexisting medical conditions. Two additional groups are also likely to bear resulting health burdens: children and the poor. The major diseases that are most sensitive to climate, and therefore to climate change— diarrhea, malaria, and infections associated with undernutrition— are childhood diseases of poverty. The gaps in health outcomes we are now trying so hard to address may grow even greater, and the populations that are most vulnerable may paradoxically be those that have made the least contribution to the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change. 8 The global public health community has a common interest in facing up to health risks wherever they occur in the world. Ongoing climate change, coupled with globalization, will make it more difficult to control infectious diseases within their current ranges. Health challenges arising from population displacement and conflict are unlikely to stay confined within national borders. Improved health conditions for all populations, alongside faster and more effective international disease surveillance, constitute a vital contribution to global health security. In order to respond to this challenge, WHO has identified five strategic objectives in the support that it gives to Member States.