- Prelims: Current events of national importance, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Nipah virus, The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) etc
- Mains GS Paper I & II: Development and management of social sectors/services related to Health and education etc
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
- The latest report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) delivers a stark warning: climate change heightens the global risk of infectious diseases.
- India gets ready for the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28).
INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE
Context
Health:(WHO)
- A certain totality of health to the realms of mental and social well-being and happiness beyond physical fitness, and an absence of disease and disability.
- We cannot achieve health in its wider definition without addressing health determinants.
Changed pattern of relationship between climate and diseases:
- The periodicity of mosquito-borne disease outbreaks no longer follows expected patterns.
- Dengue manifests in two to three peaks throughout the year.
- Variability in temperature, precipitation, and humidity disrupt disease transmission cycles.
- These alter the distribution of the vectors and animal reservoirs that host the parasite.
- Heat interferes with the genomic structure of pathogens, changing their infectivity and virulence.
Impact on India:
- The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) was rolled out in a few States in 2007.
- It reported 553 outbreaks in 2008, it last reported 1,714 in 2017.
- It was phased out in favor of a web-enabled, near-real-time electronic information system called Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP).
- It added 20 additional disease conditions over IDSP 13
- It could present disaggregated data to its users.
- The programme, which has enabled real-time tracking of emerging disease outbreaks, has not delivered on expectations.
- The double burden of morbidity that India faces from communicable and non-communicable diseases will be worsened by climate change.
Impact of climate change on health:
- Climate change affects health directly, causing more sickness and death.
- It affects nutrition, reduces working hours, and increases climate-induced stress.
- If global temperature were to rise by 2°C, many parts of India would become uninhabitable.
- Climate emergencies — extreme heat, cyclones, floods — are expected to occur with increasing regularity.
- These will interfere with food security and livelihoods and sharpen health challenges.
- It could facilitate the growth of vectors such as mosquitoes, sandflies, ticks, and change the seasonality of infection through changes in their life cycle.
- It could also facilitate the introduction of vectors and pathogens into areas where they did not exist before, such as mosquitoes in the Himalayan States.
- Heat also alters the virulence of pathogens.
- Reduced availability of food and water and the decrease in nutritional value of food increases vulnerability to diseases.
- Epidemics commonly occur after floods, but extended warm periods also promote the proliferation of water and food-borne pathogens and diseases.
- Heat, physical exertion, and dehydration, a constant state for laborers, could lead to kidney injuries, which are rising in India due to uncontrolled diabetes.
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases are exacerbated by increased and extended episodes of air pollution.
- The risk of dying from pulmonary disease increases by 8–8.2% during a heat wave.
- hospitalization rates will go up by 8% for every 1% increase in temperature above 29°C.
- Depression, aggravated by stress generated by the change in weather conditions, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder invariably accompany a climate emergency.
Impact on urbanization:
- Unplanned urbanization: Urban areas, not tempered by urban greenery and open spaces.
- Filled with asphalt roads and heat-retaining buildings that physically block air circulation.
- They have the worst ill effects of climate change due to the urban heat island effect.
- Urban areas are warmer than surrounding rural areas, especially at night.
- Climate change puts further pressure on the weak urban primary health system, already suffering the ill effects of air pollution
- urban planning that discourages physical activity
- Work-related and cultural stress.
Way Forward
- Mitigation efforts begin with understanding the direct and indirect pathways by which climate change impacts health and assessing the burden.
- Currently, the health information systems are not modified to gather this data.
- The benefits from upstream interventions that focus on better urban planning, green cover, water conservation, and public health interventions will be much larger — not only for health but for many determinants of health.
- Action to control climate change needs to happen at global, regional, and local levels.
- Pathways of climate change and their impact will determine the appropriate area of intervention.
- India has to recognise climate change and its impact on health as a problem that can be and needs to be addressed.
- Researchers who work in this area need to come up with policy options for action.
- National, State, and local governments have to decide to act on the policy options that have been generated by research.
- When the three streams of problematization, policy options, and political decision-making come together, meaningful change is likely to happen.
QUESTION FOR PRACTICE
Besides being a moral imperative of the Welfare State, primary health structure is a necessary precondition for sustainable development.” Analyze.(UPSC 2021) (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)
