Kathmandu, April 7:

Putting health at the centre of the global dialogue on climate change, the World Health Day was celebrated today with the theme of ‘protecting health from climate change’.

This year, the World Health Day celebrations focused on the need to protect human health from the adverse effects of climate change.

Experts say Nepal, being a Himalayan country, could be more prone to health risks associated with climate change. Evidences have shown that human activities are affecting the global climate with serious implications on public health, said Dr Bishnu Prasad Pundit, secretary at the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP).

He said the day was marked in Nepal to ensure public participation in the global campaign to protect human health from the adverse impacts of climate change.

“Being a member country of the World Health Organisation (WHO), we have joined hands in the global campaign,” he said, adding that climate and weather already have influences on human health through deaths in heat waves, cold waves and floods, which also influence the patterns of life-threatening vector-borne diseases such as malaria.

He said deforestation along with massive urbanisation and use of fossil fuels contributes to the global warming each day. There is an immediate need to strengthen surveillance and control of infectious diseases, ensure safer use of diminishing water supplies, and take action on health emergencies, he added.

Dr Manohar Gupta, chief of the General Practice and Emergency Medicine Department at TU Teaching Hospital, said disastrous weather patterns, a negative impact on food and water supplies and new patterns of infectious disease outbreaks and ecosystem changes are all associated with global warming. He warned that the health risks associated with climate change are likely to get intensified in the coming days.

According to the WHO, the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has re-confirmed that humans are getting negatively affected with the changes in global climate. Climate variability and change has and will cause further deaths and diseases through natural disasters, such as heat waves, floods and droughts. In addition to these disasters, many diseases are highly sensitive to changing temperatures and precipitation. These include common vector borne diseases like malaria and dengue. It also adds up to the global burden of disease, a report of the panel said.