Climate change will fuel dengue - WHO exec

MANILA, Philippines - The World Health Organization on Tuesday warned that that dengue would continue to ravage the earth's population because of climate change. The warning was issued by John Juliard Go, a doctor and WHO's national officer for noncommunicable diseases, who added that by the year 2085, between 50 to 60 percent of the world’s population will be exposed to dengue because of climate change. “What we can see, is that the expected climate change is likely to increase the risks of dengue for many millions of people over the coming decades," Go said. He made the remarks at the weekly health forum held in a Quezon City restaurant. Climate change affects the health of people as the world gets warmer at an accelerating rate while sea levels rise because of melting glaciers in some areas, Go said. These phenomena, he added, will bring about increasing droughts, floods and storms. Dengue, a mosquito-borne disease, usually spreads after the rainy season through stagnant water. At the height of the El Niño phenomenon in 1998, more than 35,000 Filipinos were diagnosed to have dengue. In that year, a surge in cholera, malaria, and typhoid fever was also monitored. Dengue cases have gone down through the years but the Philippine health department warn that the country will see a resurgence of the disease unless communities act to clean their surroundings and do away with stagnant water and mosquito lairs. As of March 8, 2008, a total of 6,653 dengue cases were monitored by the Philippines' Department of Health. Out of this number, 67 patients died. Aside from dengue, Go said that extreme weather affect water and food-borne diseases, vector and rodent-borne illnesses, and food and water shortages. Each year, undernutrition kills 3.7 million children, while about 1.8 million and 1.1 million die from diarrhea and malaria respectively. “In the Philippines, there already are trends of increasing number of hot days and warm nights, but decreasing number of cold days and cool nights. Other extreme weather/climate events like intense rains have been seen to be more frequent," he said. Climate change, warned Go, will adversely affect poor countries, particularly in Africa where public health services are poor. For her part, May Ajego - chief of the air quality unit of the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities - said “overconsumption" of energy and transport fuels contribute to climate change. Go said there is an urgent need to tackle the issue of global warming so that stakeholders could come up with a comprehensive public health agenda to address its health impacts. “We don't just have a duty, but also an opportunity. As societies begin to take action to address climate change, we have the chance to promote health as well as protect it," he explained. - GMANews.TV