CLIMATE CHANGE POSSIBLE DISEASE OUTBREAKS

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CLIMATE CHANGE POSSIBLE DISEASE OUTBREAKS


Experts call for better monitoring of health
[SIZE=-1]APIRADEE TREERUTKUARKUL[/SIZE]​

Thailand needs a better health surveillance and alert system to safeguard people from possible outbreaks of diseases associated with climate change and global warming, said health experts.

''Our surveillance system is good, but it is rather passive. The system should be more active to ensure that it will effectively deal with new and re-emerging diseases which tend to increase due to global warming,'' said Teerawat Hemachuta, of Chulalongkorn University's faculty of medicine.


Speaking at the Public Health Ministry's annual academic conference in Chiang Mai which ended yesterday, Dr Teerawat warned that epidemics such as the Nipah and West Nile viruses carried by fruit bats and mosquitoes could emerge here due to changes in the climate pattern and ecosystem.


The Nipah virus was detected in 1999 in Malaysia, and it killed thousands of pigs and 110 people. It has also caused disease in animals and humans through contact with infected animals in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and the Pacific Islands.


Although the country had experienced only a few outbreaks of the Nipah virus, the biologic properties of these viruses, which can infect a wide range of hosts and cause significant mortality in humans, make this emerging viral infection a public health concern, he said.


The West Nile virus is another potentially serious illness. Experts believe it is established as a seasonal epidemic in North America. Dr Teerawat, however, claimed that it was possible that other types of virus were also found in Australia and had spread to other countries such as India and Bangladesh.


Jiraphon Sinthunawa, an academic at Mahidol University, said Thailand should be more concerned about diseases spreading from neighbouring countries as a result of climate change, which could affect the movement patterns of animals.


Dr Sattar Yoosuf, director of sustainable development and health environment at the World Health Organisation's Southeast Asia regional office, said he was concerned about water-borne and vector-borne diseases which might hit tropical countries due to the global warming effect.


No study had been conducted on the health impact caused by global warming in Thailand. However, a study in India and Africa shows the link between the phenomenon and an increase in diarrhoea and vector-borne disease, such as malaria.


''Such an epidemic could occur in Thailand. Although the climate change process might be slow, its cumulative effect on people's health could be great,'' he said

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