WHO links rise in Pacific diseases to climate change

Updated Fri Jul 5, 2013 8:12pm AEST

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says there is a clear correlation between climate change and a rise in cases of disease in the Pacific.

The WHO has added an extra eight conditions to its list of threats because of new evidence that has emerged in the past decade through research on the health impacts of climate change.

Malaria was on the original list, but now dengue fever has been added.

Dr Colin Tukuitonga, the director of the Public Health Division in the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), says the prevalence of disease reaches from the top of Australia and throughout the Pacific.

“This year alone we had dengue from Papua New Guinea, Fiji, New Caledonia, Solomons, French Polynesia and even northern Queensland,” he said.

“With the changes that come about with the result of climate change we’re concerned dengue will continue to spread.”

Dr Tukuitonga says the spread of dengue into island countries where it was not such a threat before is a major concern.

“When you have more people in the population that haven’t been exposed, obviously it takes off,” he said.

Chikungunya, or “chik”, another equally debilitating disease carried by the same mosquito as dengue, is also on the rise.

Dr Tukuitonga says it was reported for the first time in New Caledonia this year and the conditions are there for chik to spread even further.

There has been some success recently in the fight against malaria in the Pacific, especially in Solomon Islands, thanks in part to treated mosquito nets.

But the mosquito carrying dengue and chikungunya bites during daylight hours, not at dusk and dawn.

The WHO is encouraging Pacific island countries to develop their own health sector action plans to monitor and respond to climate-sensitive diseases.

Topics: diseases-and-disorders, malaria, climate-change, environmental-impact, environmental-health, pacific, papua-new-guinea, fiji, solomon-islands, new-caledonia, french-polynesia

First posted Fri Jul 5, 2013 8:05pm AEST