{"id":221466,"date":"2022-04-06T19:04:53","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T17:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/who.africa-newsroom.com\/press\/africa-faces-rising-climatelinked-health-emergencies?lang=en"},"modified":"2022-04-06T19:04:53","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T17:04:53","slug":"africa-faces-rising-climate-linked-health-emergencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/africa-faces-rising-climate-linked-health-emergencies\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa Faces Rising Climate-linked Health Emergencies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"World<\/a>
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Climate-related health emergencies are on the rise in Africa, accounting for more than half of public health events recorded in the region over the past two decades, a new analysis by World Health Organization (WHO) shows.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The analysis found that of the 2121 public health events recorded in the African region between 2001 and 2021, 56% were climate-related. The region is witnessing an increase in climate-linked emergencies, with 25% more climate-related events recorded between 2011 and 2021 compared with the previous decade.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

World Health Day is being marked on 7 April under the theme “Our Planet. Our Health.” WHO is calling on governments to, among other recommendations, prioritize human well-being in all key decisions, stop new fossil fuel explorations and subsidies, tax polluters and implement WHO air quality guidelines.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“Climate change is one of the greatest threats to humanity. The entire foundation of good health is in jeopardy with increasingly severe climatic events. In Africa, frequent floods, water- and vector-borne diseases are deepening health crises. Although the continent contributes the least to global warming, it bears the full consequences,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The WHO analysis found that water-borne diseases accounted for 40% of the climate-related health emergencies over the past two decades. In Africa, diarrhoeal diseases are the third leading cause of disease and death in under 5 children. A significant proportion of these deaths is preventable through safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and hygiene.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The analysis also showed that vector-borne diseases, notably yellow fever, accounted for 28% of the climate-related health emergencies, while zoonotic diseases, specifically Congo-Crimean haemorrhagic fever, were the third most prevalent. Congo-Crimean haemorrhagic fever is a viral disease transmitted to people from ticks and livestock and has an outbreak fatality rate of up to 40%.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Natural disasters have also spiked dramatically since 2010, with 70% of all-natural disasters occurring between 2017 and 2021. Floods were the most frequent event, accounting for 33% of all the reported natural disasters.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Africa is also grappling with other significant health impacts linked to climatic shocks including malnutrition and hunger due to adverse weather on agricultural production, long-term health and development challenges in children, as well as other infectious diseases such as malaria.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In Africa, climate change is likely to expand the range of malaria high-risk zones, according to a report by the Netherlands-based Global Centre on Adaptation. Even though malaria mortality has decreased from 840 000 deaths in 2000 to 602 000 deaths in 2020, the disease remains a major health challenge on the continent.<\/p>\n

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Health Organization (WHO).<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: Africa Newsroom – APO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Download logo Climate-related health emergencies are on the rise in Africa, accounting for more than half of public health events recorded in the region over the past two decades, a new analysis by World Health Organization (WHO) shows. The analysis found that of the 2121 public health events recorded in the African region between 2001 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":221467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4585],"class_list":{"0":"post-221466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-apo","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/africa-faces-rising-climate-linked-health-emergencies.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}