The effects of climate change entail the rise of sea levels, precipitation and an increase in the intensity of extreme weather occurrences. The availability of various health risks is dependent on the ability of the public and private health, measures of safety systems to address the upcoming threats and determinants such as individual behaviors, gender, economic position, and age. The implications will differ based on the location of residence, the extent to which they are sensitive to health threats, to what extent are the individuals exposed in the climatic change effects and how the community at large is flexible to adapt to the changes without any side effects. Individuals in developing countries are most likely to be vulnerable to the health threats worldwide, but climatic changes effects pose a threat to health even in already developed countries such as the USA. The population of great concern and the group prone to the adverse effects are the children, pregnant mothers and the elderly (Shahid 2010).
The research study of this paper provides an overview of the climate change and health issues in Bangladesh. The principal objective of this paper is to enhance an assessment, the problem and the spread of health effects in Bangladesh. In relation to climate change and life-threatening weather effects, the existing policies mechanisms and the practical steps to be established on the way forward. The climatic changes and their implications for the human health have become a source of early deaths to the children. The elderly are faced with health issues as a result of climatic changes as they lack the immunity to fight the infectious diseases. Pandemic diseases such as waterborne diseases have resulted to many deaths in Bangladesh and worldwide in general. With these reasons, there is an alarming need to initiate programs and strategies to curb the climatic change effects. The government in collaboration with the private sectors ought to come up with a plan and together implement it as an immediate attention to the adverse effects on human health (Bhuiya, Datta and Chowdhury 2013).
The fourth assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has conclusions after an analysis of the study on how climate change is contributing to the adverse effects and global burden of several pandemics and premature deaths. For a sustainable development in a country, good health to its citizens is the primary goal and a great achievement. In this case, fitness refers to the physical, psychological and social welfare of the people and the health impacts of the climate change should be keenly understood and addressed accordingly (Hoegh and Bruno 2010).
Climate change has its effects on human either directly or indirectly. The direct climate changes are temperature, the rise of the sea levels and precipitating. The indirect effects are changes in industries, economy, human settlement, ecosystems as well as agriculture. These effects either direct or indirect, affect human life and can lead to suffering, disabilities or even death.in this case, individuals become vulnerable and are unable to adapt to the climatic changes (Hashizume, Wagatsuma, Hayashi and Armstrong 2010).
Research of the study on the relationship between climatic changes and human health conducted (IPCC 2007) has shown that the link is multidimensional. Climatic variations have led to alteration of the spreading of communicable diseases. Climate changes have also led to the adjustment of the seasonal spread of hypersensitive pollen kind and even an increase in heat extremes related deaths.
Figure: Relationship between climate change and human health
Climate change is also affecting the time of contagious bodies and the spreading of infectious disease vectors. Climate is also in charge of the distribution of water-borne diseases like cholera, malaria, and typhoid. Heat waves as well as flooding results in adverse effects which are severely dangerous to the human health (Verbesselt et al. 2012).An assessment was conducted by WHO in the local and international levels to get the quantity of mortality rate caused by climatic changes factors. The findings of the research were that in 2000,160000 lives were lost each year resulting from the effects of climatic changes. The assessment also estimated ways of interventions to reduce these effects. Stabilizing the emissions of the greenhouse was one of the measures. The consequences on the health in the research were regarded based on their sensitivity to climatic changes, estimation on the future importance and the accessibility of general quantitative methods. Some health implications were:Incidents of diarrhea infections issues of Plasmodium falciparum malaria, accidents caused by floods and lack of recommendation on the intake of calorie on a daily basis. The adverse effects on health mainly affect the vulnerable groups such as pregnant mothers, children, the elderly, poor urban centers and the coastal populations. The assessment also predicts a rise in the increase in diarrhea infections in poor reigns in 2020. Deaths from diarrhea infections are expected to rise in countries like Asia due to changes brought about by global warming. IPCC suggests that for a reduction in health effects of climate variations, an improvement on adaptive capacity is required globally. Such measures include modifying risk management from short-term risks to long-term risks and also come up with programs with an adequate evaluation to cope with the climatic risks (Hashizume et al. 2012).
Bangladesh is prone to contagious and waterborne illness. Various assessment has shown the increasing rate of malaria spreading. In summer months, the mixture of the summer precipitation and high temperatures may lead to communicable diseases. Among the elderly and the children, additional stress like heat-related mortality, malnutrition, and dehydration are the most affected group by the climatic changes. Effects of changes in the climate such as ozone depletion, biodiversity, land degradation, ecosystem decline as well as the freshwater decline caused health problems. Bangladesh is also affected by its large population, consumption of natural resources, frequent natural disasters as well as environmental pollution. For a developed country, it must have the ability to provide necessities like food, shelter and good health. Lak of the elements affects lives of people exposing them to poverty (Shindell et al. 2012).
An increase in the frequency of heat waves
An increase in temperatures leads to the adverse impacts especially on children and the elderly. The health impacts associated with the heat waves are dehydration, stroke, cardiovascular illness in older adults and diarrhea diseases mostly in children (Gething et al.2010).
Precipitation patterns
Variations in the precipitation pattern affect the supply of fresh water hence increasing the chances of waterborne diseases infections. Precipitation also leads to waterlogging and floods which increases the risks of waterborne diseases and malaria from the stagnated water. Agricultural production is also affected hence the nutrition of the people at risk.
Malnutrition
The rise in heat and precipitation affects the agricultural production increasing the risks of malnutrition. Malnutrition will impose adverse effects on people making them vulnerable in contaminating with the diseases due to lack of energy and immunity. Lack of enough food will put the community into threats of starvation and absence of the required nutrients in a human body. The body will lack the ability to fight infections.
The rising sea levels
The rise of sea levels increases the risk of coastal flooding which may lead to agricultural distraction as well as human displacement. People around these regions will also be vulnerable to diseases like cholera, typhoid, and malaria. Areas most affected are the regions around the Nile delta in Egypt (Vasilakis et al. 2011).
Health policies
The introduction of Health and Population Sector Strategy was to ensure equity in health care and the distribution health necessities to all population both rural and urban areas. The maternal and child health program has received a particular priority. The allocation of financial funds in the health sector has improved. Services are offered according to the clients need a specific service point unlike the previous method of the door to door in a community. The changes in the strategy will require a reorganization of service structure. Such changes are expected to reduce costs and improve efficiency at the same time (Amin, Tareq and Rahman 2011). Strategies that have been put in place in the achievement of health-based Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are outlined below;
Inter-sectoral cooperation
Depending on the requirements in collaboration, sectoral committees have been formed in both the national level and local. The prime minister heads the national level committees. At the district level there is coordination of the committee, and at the lowest administrative union, inter-coastal committees have been established. For instance, the sanitation and water projects (Rahman 2008).
Organization of systems
Decentralization of management is being established by forming the ministerial committee in collaborating the health and the family planning sectors. Dichotomy being found in the national and district levels while family planning services are offered in the outreach and the union levels (Wheeler and Von Braun 2013).
Managerial process
The government has formulated a national health strategy where change from the top-down method of planning to a participatory approach, that will be involving shareholders and investors in the health department. Implementation of the new plan approach is product oriented. The program mainly concentrates on the output more than the inputs (Rahman 2008).
Community action
In the implementation of PHC by the action program, there is an emphasis of the roles of family, individual and community. The participation of religious leaders is highly encouraged. The collaboration of inter-sectoral and the community to volunteer in health sectors, will improve the conditions of services required to fight the adverse effects of climatic changes (Mani and Wang 2015).
Health research and technology
The Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) is in charge of biomedical research. They engage in operational research whose findings enables decision making. The conclusions made also help the health sectors to be able to predict disease risks thus measures are calculated to avoid the effects. The research culture in Bangladesh is generally growing, and its further development will yield positive implications towards the health sector in general.
Health education and promotion
The Health Educational Bureau (HEB) has provided educational support to national programs. There has been an emphasis in our current times on school, hospital health as well as the coordination with the non-governmental organization (Watts et al. 2015).
Policy and institutional strategy.
The strategy was enacted in the health system for it is based on the national health in future. The procedure operates with some principles which improves the quality and efficiency of the services provided, offering a collection of services, expansion of the private sector in providing health services and finally an orientation to client needs. The strategy is aimed at achieving objectives such as the allocation of extra resources to vulnerable groups like children and women and also the poor. Decentralization of management by devolved government, enhancing equilibrium between the public and private sector in providing services and financing (Chanda, Parvin, Biswas and Shaw 2010). The mentioned objectives set are to be achieved through the following activities:
To deliver a necessary combination of services to the citizens considering equity such that none of the members is discriminated upon with a goal of maximizing the benefits linked to health about per capita spending. The government in collaboration with other private institutions should work on the climatic changes affecting human health by initiating training programs for health staffs and professionals. The mechanism of delivering the services ought to be decentralized, structured again and unified. Health insurance services in Bangladesh is aimed at improvement by the introduction of a valid health insurance scheme which will generally improve the hospital level service. The regulatory framework will be enhanced when revision and reviewing of the existing policies which in turn will improve the quality and the effectiveness of the services (Kabir and Arafat 2018).
Practical steps that need consideration in the implementation of the proposed policy action.
In
Bangladesh, water-borne diseases are the major challenge in the public health. To address such problems, there is need of taking research studies to approve previous findings.
Enhancement of awareness programs on the climatic changes implications that adversely affect human health would build community’s as well as individual’s resilience.
The maternal and child health program ought to receive particular priority information of health policies since they are the vulnerable groups prone to health threats (Adger, Barnett, Chapin III and Ellemor 2011).
There should be a development of adaptation strategies to deal with climate changes in consideration of the factors of climatic or non-climatic. The move initiated should have an association with the required partners either governmental or non-governmental organizations.
The mechanism of delivering the services ought to be decentralized, structured again and unified.
There should be an implementation of various strategies in line with the water supply and sanitation management. Water resources need protection from pollution.
The government in collaboration with other private institutions should work on the climatic changes affecting human health by initiating training programs for health staffs and professionals.
The government should engage in operational research whose findings are used in decision making.
The government should pledge measures for climatic diseases distinctly by involving a separate component in the already existing national disease measures programs.
The community, as well as the government, should initiate programs in improving hygienic practices in the community as well as the national level to avoid people from contracting diseases (Weber and Stern 2011).
Conclusion
In summary, even if the implications of climatic change can affect human health in Bangladesh adversely and globally, a lot can be done for more natural adaptation to the changes and also how to be prepared for a disaster. Measures like raising awareness among the professionals in health care, early warnings of the effects such as heat waves and the extent weather events, taking preventive measures to reduce the vulnerabilities in the community, initiating actions that can accommodate future calamities. Understanding the risks that climate change causes to human health is the initial move in working together to lessen the threats and be equipped (Brümmer et al. 2012).
The Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) is in charge of biomedical research. They engage in operational research whose findings are used in decision making. The conclusions made also help the health sectors to be able to predict disease risks thus measures to avoid the effects calculated. The research culture in Bangladesh is generally growing, and its further development will yield positive implications towards the health sector in general. In Bangladesh, water-borne diseases are the major challenge in the public health. Addressing such problems, there is need of taking research studies to approve previous findings. There should be a development of adaptation strategies to deal with climate changes in consideration of the factors of climatic or non-climatic. The move initiated should have an association with the required partners either governmental or non-governmental organizations (Warrick and Ahmad 2012
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