Transcript Heat waves and public health

Early Lessons from
Implementation of Climate
Change and Human Health
Study in Zambia
Early Lessons from Implementation of Climate Change Adaptation
Projects in South-Eastern Africa, Organised by IISD, IIED and SSN.
Maputo, Mozambique
April 24 and 25, 2007
Dr. George B. Kasali
Technical Manager
Energy and Environmental Concerns for Zambia (EECZ)
[email protected]
Defining Health
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and
social well-being and not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity. [WHO, 1946]
focus on whole populations
 broad definition of health
 population health depends not only on the
provision of good healthcare services but also on
the physical, social, cultural and economic
environment people live in.
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Location: Country – Zambia
Districts: Lundazi and Mazabuka
Project: Country Study of Adaptation
to Climate Change and Human
Health in Zambia
CONTEXT
Initiated by IIED out of concern for the
following:
 Zambia has a GDP of USD 400 per
capita, with over two-thirds of the
population living under the national
poverty line.
 60% of the households had been
severely food-insecure since the 1990s.
 The vulnerability of families is
aggravated by the increasing AIDS
pandemic weakening the public sector
and threatening long-term national
development.
Context cont’d
 Cholera and other waterborne diseases,
such as dysentery, are endemic.
 Malaria causes about 15% of maternal
deaths, 40% of infant deaths and 46% of
outpatient morbidity.
All the above compounded and confounded by:
 Consecutive seasons of drought and floods
since 2001.
 In 2004/2005 prolonged drought affected
over half of the country’s provinces, leaving
an estimated 1.2 million people in need of
food assistance.
 In 2006/2007 severe flooding has affected
over 1.4 million people and damaged
infrastructure worth millions of dollars.
Objectives

Key project objective was to provide
evidence-based scientific
information for decision-making on
adaptation of human health to
climate change.
Activities
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Review and analyze secondary information
and data on human health and climate
variability in Zambia
Conduct a case study analysis of the
impacts of climatic hazards (droughts and
floods) on human health, with emphasis on
specific diseases.
Compile a report and hold a stakeholder
workshop to derive policy actions and
future research needs.
Duration, Budget and Sponsors of
Project

The project duration was two years

Funding was 5,000 pounds sterling

Funded by International Institute
for Environment and Development
(IIED) of London.
Innovative Elements of Project
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Currently, official Ministry of Health data dates from
1998, however analysis of climate-health
interactions requires long-term data with a timespan of 20 – 30 years.
Health data dating back to 1970s was found in
discarded files dumped in drawers, cupboards and
store-rooms of health facilities.
Data dating back to 1940s was also found stashed in
national information archives of Zambia
Innovative Elements of Project Cont’d
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Climate disasters are usually
location specific and official
personnel take time to reach these
areas, therefore, information was
also compiled from:
Newspaper reports, TV clips and
NGO-networks such as the Red
Cross Society.
Issues - Opportunities
Funding chances can be enhanced if:
• Project targets diseases with global impacts
such as HIV/AIDS
• Project targets specific population groups
such as children or incorporates health
issues into such sectors such as agriculture
or gender
This year Ministry of Health has become
quite receptive to climate change
issues-due to a policy statement by
Minister of Health.
Issues – Opportunities Cont’d

The National Vulnerability
Assessment Committee under SADC
have become an important source
of data on impacts of floods and
droughts as they conduct food
security assessments on a yearly
basis. Health data is also included.
Issues – Concerns and Challenges
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Initial resistance of health personnel to
climate change issues due to initial
national focus on climate change
mitigation alone.
Inadequate technical skills for analyzing
the linkage between human health and
climate variability
Difficulties in extrapolating findings from
community level to national and global
scales
Divergence of data values depending on
source.
Early Lessons Learnt
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Zambia has the health data for quantifying
relationships between climate variability and
human health, except time and resources are
needed to mine it.
There are more diseases than malaria and
diarrhoea that are sensitive to climate.
Human health adaptation to climate change
carries both local and global benefits due to the
pandemic nature of diseases and the globalization
of labour and commodity markets.
The climate-health models that are solely based
on climatic data, such as MARA, can be validated
with actual health data in Zambia.
Conclusion and Recommendations
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Zambia and Africa present very good models for
studying climate-health interactions as confounding
factors are relatively few.
There is need to preserve the currently discarded data
of the 1970s and 1980s in Zambia
There is very high demand for policy-oriented and
multi-scaled research on climate-health interactions in
developing countries.
It is imperative to provide training in methods for
quantifying the link between climate variability and
human health. Zambia is also besieged with climatehazard induced outbreaks of livestock diseases. Some
of these are zoonotic.
A holistic approach to climate change adaptation in the
health sector is mandatory as the main determinants of
health are outside the health sector.