Impacts of environmental and climate change on health and mortality

In the aftermath of the year 2012 floods, Nigeria’s poor management of disasters once again played out. The Nigerian government declared about 25 percent of the country’s population displaced. Hundreds drowned in the floods. Persons displaced by flood are camped in thousands of improvised camps under very deplorable conditions. Many of the camps are overcrowded and disease-ridden. At the last count, 22 persons have died in the camps and 27 births have taken place. This study has the aim of finding out the actual situation of mortality and morbidity among the persons displaced by the floods of year 2012 in Nigeria with a view to improve management of displaced persons. This involved visits to affected areas and refugee camps and interviews of 240 selected victims and some care providers in four, out of 30, affected Nigerian States. Responses have been analysed using descriptive statistical techniques and results show that death and diseases are common attributes of the flood incidents in many parts of the country and this owes to failures of management system adopted by the country, poor contingency planning, poor social protection financing and lack of infrastructure.

Keywords: Nigeria, displaced persons, floods, mortality, morbidity.

Due to the continues incessant impacts of climate change in Africa resulted in the incessant drying of rivers especially those feeder rivers supplying over 90 % of the Lake water like the River Shari in the republic of Cameroon and the river Yobe in Nigeria this trend has resulted those community living along the courses or banks of these feeder rivers to be blocking the rivers from supplying the water in to the Lake while trying to adapt to the impacts of climate change situation by building Dams along these feeder rivers in quest of water for their irrigational activities as well as other activities like the generation of Hydro electric city and other relevant activities. This situation has resulted in the reduction of the water of the Lake to just 1800 km square.
However due to the negative impacts of the ongoing climate change in this region many of the farmers discovered that the best option for farming in the region under this scenario is to always farm along the shores of the lake this resulted in to a situation whereby the farmers legalized their occupancies of these shores of the lake which they call their lands through purchase under customary laws that are not recognized by the fishing communities as a result the farmers are preventing the fishermen permanently from fishing.

Patterns of mortality and morbidity can be affected by climate changes: floods, droughts, heat waves and wildfires affect the incidence of waterborne diseases; exposure to high concentrations of gaseous pollutants is associated with respiratory diseases; frosts, storms, droughts and floods threaten food production which can increase the rates of malnutrition. Effect of climate change can be more accentuated among individuals living in poor socioeconomic conditions. Poverty increases vulnerability of individuals to extreme temperatures and precipitation. The aim of this paper is to estimate the effect of climate change on population health in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The analysis is performed by regions of the state, which is very heterogeneous regarding its socioeconomic and epidemiological characteristics. The disparities are observed at both regional and individual levels. Preliminary findings show a significant effect of climate change on dengue and hospitalization rates for infectious and respiratory diseases. Increases in temperature between 2010 and 2040 will contribute to increase the prevalence of diseases. The increases in the morbidity rates will be higher for dengue and in the following regions: northwest, north and Minas Gerais triangle. North and northwest of Minas Gerais are among the poorest regions of the state.

Title: Impacts of environmental and climate change on health and mortality
1. Abstract: It is increasingly recognized that for any small, heavily populated and largely agricultural island economy, the environment is one of the essential elements of sustainable development. One of the earliest concerns over the environmental stress both on land and offshore caused by excessive population and development activities was the study undertaken by the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the University of Mauritius and the Government of Mauritius over the period 1992 to 1994. The Population Development Environment (PDE) model was prepared to understand the linkages between the three over the period 1990 to 2020 and 2050 under three different scenarios namely Traditional/crisis/ laissez faire, Modern /crises/laissez faire with food self-sufficiency and Modern/boom/garden scenarios. The Mauritian government has itself continued its concern with the environment and prepared the First state of the environment report in 1991. It has since studied various aspects of environmental impact on the population. This study wil (i) compare the outcome of the 1992 PDE model with the latest 2011 report. it will (ii) assess the impact on the health of the population and in particular as a result of the ageing of the population

Malaria remains one of the world's most devastating public health threats. In Peru, 75% of malaria occurs in the northern Amazon region of Loreto where 80% of cases are concentrated in just 10 districts. Loreto is the least densely populated region of Peru and also the largest. To maintain the declining malaria rates currently seen, better knowledge of where, when and why people are infected is needed. The primary factors affecting malaria endemicity in Loreto are vector habitat expansion from land use change, and social and ecological processes that increase human exposure. To refine and focus prevention strategies, spatially explicit risk estimates are necessary. In this study, we investigate how malaria risk varies across time and space in Loreto by modeling the relationship among climate, land use, and malaria from 2009 to 2012. We incorporate satellite-derived climate and land use variables with data on monthly malaria counts at each government health post in Loreto. Initial models indicate increased malaria risk for lagged rainfall and soil moisture as well as land areas prone to flood. These models will be compared against current forecasting methods to determine if more efficient prevention and control efforts can be implemented.

This paper documents the current locations of urban-dwellers in Asia of ecologically delineated zones that are expected to experience the full force of climate change: the low-elevation coastal zones, areas susceptible to inland flooding (apart from coastal sources), and the arid regions known to ecologists as drylands. Low-lying cities and towns near the coast will most probably face increased risks from storm surges and flooding; those in drylands are expected to experience increased water stress and episodes of extreme heat, as well as flash flooding. It is especially important to quantify the exposure of urban residents in low-elevation coastal zones, and to understand the likely implications for their health. While potential coastal flooding in cities has received attention, in part because the long-term implications of rising
sea-levels and change coastal zones, increasing precipitation, in general, and more extreme weather events will also lead to greater flood risks to city-dwellers from in-land water sources. In this paper, flood exposures
from in-land water sources are also estimated, not only because some coastal cities are also at risk of flooding from in-land waterway

Survival of infants and young children remains one of the most important issues in the developing world. Around the world, more than 10 million children under five years of age die every year, Twenty to 25 percent children born in developing countries die before their fifth birthday (Mosley 1985). Diarrhea, Pneumonia and malaria are the leading killers of children, accounting for nearly half of all child deaths globally. Most deaths of children under age five in developing countries have been linked to the household environment. This study attempted to understand the influence of women's socio-economic and demographic characteristics, and the influence of household environmental conditions on child survival in rural Maharashtra. Analysis is based on data from District Level Household Survey -3. Study finds that incidence of child loss is 78 percent among the children living in the household without toilet facility. It is 82 percent in household where wood is used as cooking fuel. An incidence of child loss based on water purification method adopted at household level indicates that those households used cloth for purification of water incidence of child loss is 47 percent. Child loss is around 48 percent for mothers in age group 20-24 years. It is found that child loss for working mothers was quite high (74 percent).

Based on its topographical, climatic factors and biomes Nepal is divided into three ecological zones [Mountain, Hill and Tarai]. Does the variation in ecology have direct influence on health of Children.To address this question, the present study used the recent Nepal DHS-2011 survey data. The results revealed that disadvantageous position of the mountain region in terms of child survival is consistently established through all three methodological exercises carried out in this study. Bivariate results revealed that across the three ecological zones, the Mountain zone experiences considerably higher childhood mortality rates. Cox proportional hazard model estimates also revealed that relative risk of dying for all groups of children in Mountain Ecological zone is greater compared to Hill and Tarai. Oaxaca decomposition results show that the variables considered can explain only 46 percent variation of mountain and hill differences in mortality it means there could be some direct environmental factors which are playing role in differential mortality, Variations are explained by some important demographic factors such as less than 20 months birth interval of women, work status of the mother, mother’s education, poor economic status etc.,

Context: Bangladesh is divided into seven distinct climatic zones. The effect of climate on mortality can be different in different zones. This study aims to assess the weather-mortality relationships in two climatic zones.
Methods: Health and demographic surveillance sites (HDSS) maintained by icddr,b in Matlab and Abhoynagar in two climatic zones provided daily counts of death and population during 1983-2009. Weather data on daily temperature and rainfall and cyclones for the same period were obtained from nearby weather stations of the Bangladesh Metrological Department. Time series Poisson regression with cubic spline functions, was used allowing for over dispersion and lagged effects of weather on mortality, controlling for time trends and seasonal patterns. Analysis was carried out using R statistical software.
Findings and conclusions: Both temperature and rainfall showed strong seasonal patterns, explaining a significant part of mortality in both sites. Abhoynagar with more extreme in temperature exhibited stronger cold temperature-mortality relationship than Matlab. Abhoynagar with less rainfall exhibited the rainfall-mortality association, which was not the case with Matlab. The weather-mortality relationships by age, sex and broad cause were also examined to identify vulnerable groups and areas.

Background: Heat waves are known to be associated with increases in mortality and the burden of heat-related illness in population. However, there is limited regional information available to guide the public health adaptation plan. Therefore, regional health vulnerability of heat waves is assessed.

Methods: Vulnerability index (VRI) are calculated and mapped for Korean peninsula from 2000s to 2100s, applying SRES A1B scenario. The contribution analyses of VRI were performed to grasp attributable variables.

Results: Climate change vulnerabilities related to heat waves showed large regional variations. Contribution of three components, climate change exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity, were 0.28, 0.28 and 0.33, respectively. Overall vulnerability is predicted to be increasing over time. It varies by regions, however currently vulnerable areas appear to stay or be more vulnerable in the future. Vulnerable areas are mostly distributed southern part of Korea in 2000s, and tend to be gradually moving northward in the future.

Conclusions: Mapping of VRI visualizes the locations of relatively vulnerable regions for better monitoring of climate impact, sensitive socio-demographic characteristics subpopulations, and adaptive capacity such as healthcare access conditions.