OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
CLIMATE change is the single biggest health threat facing humanity, and health professionals worldwide are already responding to the health harms caused by this unfolding crisis. Climate change is impacting human lives and health in a variety of ways.
It threatens the essential ingredients of good health clean air, safe drinking water, nutritious food supply and safe shelter and has the potential to undermine decades of progress in global health.
Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) kill 41 million people each year, equivalent to 74 per cent of all deaths globally. Each year, 17 million people die from an NCD before age 70; 86 per cent of these premature deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.
Of all NCD deaths, 77 per cent are in low- and middle-income countries. Cardiovascular diseases account for most NCD deaths, or 17.9 million people annually, followed by cancers (9.3 million), chronic respiratory diseases (4.1 million), and diabetes (2.0 million including kidney disease deaths caused by diabetes).
These 4 groups of diseases account for over 80 per cent of all premature NCD deaths. This is according to the
World Health Organisation Country Outlook Report August 2023.
NCDs are a significant health problem in Zambia. The age-standardised mortality rate across four major NCDs (Cardiovascular Disease, Chronic Respiratory Disease, Cancer and Diabetes) was 938 per 100,000 in males and 599 in females in 2021.
Zambia has implemented initial efforts on the NCD progress indicators related to NCD policy and plan, NCD guidelines, tobacco taxes, tobacco smoke free/ pollution and alcohol availability, however progress has been more limited on, tobacco health warnings, tobacco advertising bans, alcohol taxes, alcohol advertising restrictions, trans fats policies, marketing to children and physical activity guidelines.
Zambia has a high burden of communicable and non-communicable disease (NCDs), with the latter making up 35% of deaths in 2021. The country had 1.2 million people receiving antiretroviral therapy in 2021 and has made strong progress towards achieving the 9595-95 goals for HIV, reaching 91-98-96 in 2021.
Zambia’s coverage rates of vaccination in children have historically been high, with above 90 per centcoverage for the third dose of DTP-containing vaccine and the first dose of measles-containing vaccine in 2021.
The country has improved its child survival rates between 2015 and 2021 but is not yet meeting the SDG targets.
Two major global crises of our time, climate change and the epidemic of NCDs, are intertwined. They erode gains in health and development and the quality of life, hitting poor and marginalized people the hardest. Action to manage them both should be aligned in synergistic interventions that can address both.
Climate change is already impacting health in a myriad of ways, including by leading to death and illness from increasingly frequent extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, storms and floods, the disruption of food systems, increases in zoonoses and food-, waterand vector-borne diseases, and mental health issues.
Some of the impacts are:
• heat waves: cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke
• air pollution: stroke, heart disease, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer.
• wildfires: suffocation, burns, cardiovascular and respiratory problems, mental health, destruction of health services and housing
• drought: food insecurity, malnutrition, and psychosocial stress
• floods: disruption to health services, displacement and shortages of safe water, mental and physiological health, food insecurity and malnutrition
• injuries and mortality from extreme weather events
• impact on health care
facilities. Furthermore, climate change is undermining many of the social determinants for good health, such as livelihoods, equality and access to health care and social support structures.
These climate-sensitive health risks are disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, including women, children, ethnic minorities, poor communities, migrants or displaced persons, older populations, and those with underlying health conditions.
While no one is safe from these risks, the people whose health is being harmed first and worst by the climate crisis are the people who contribute least to its causes, and who are least able to protect themselves and their families against it – people in low-income and disadvantaged countries and communities.
For example: Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have made minimal contributions to global emissions of greenhouse gases but are among the countries hardest hit by climate change and natural disasters.
There is increasing strong evidence for a relation between increased morbidity and mortality from NCDs and extreme weather events, including heat waves, and also increasingly unhealthy diets and food and water insecurity. Climate change also poses serious risks to mental health.
SIDS are disproportionately represented among the countries with the highest estimated risk of dying prematurely from any of the 4 main NCDs, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, or chronic respiratory diseases. Eight of the 15 countries in the world with over 30 per cent risk of premature death from NCDs in 2019 were SIDS.
Action to combat climate change can lead to large positive improvements in public health. The public health benefits of ambitious climate actions far outweigh the costs, while strengthening health resilience and building adaptive capacity protects vulnerable populations from health shocks and promotes social equity.
Well-designed climate mitigation measures can also reduce NCD risk factors in SIDS, as well as show leadership. For instance, measures to ensure clean energy and transport will reduce air pollution; policies to promote walking and biking may reduce weight and lower blood pressure.
Policy for the production and consumption of healthy, locally produced fresh foods, particularly plantbased foods, and discouraging excessive red meat consumption, would lower greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture and result in healthier diets.
In addition, planting trees and shrubs with crops could both increase the resilience of crops to droughts and excessive rainfall run-off, reduce CO2 emissions as well as improve health." Taken from the
COP28 in collaboration with WHO and other main partners will organize the first ever Health Day and climate-health ministerial. Moreover, for the third time, WHO and the Welcome Trust will host COP28 Health Pavilion.
This will generate a watershed moment for climate and health, convening a wide variety of actors including ministers, climate and health professionals, civil society organizations, youth representatives and business, and will bring the climate–health agenda into the mainstream.