FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
23 November 2015
SA’s doctors brace for wave of climate change disease
South Africa’s largest doctor grouping, the South African Medical Association (SAMA)1, has warned that fast-rising temperatures and rainfall/humidity patterns will inevitably lead to a surge in vector-borne and water related diseases, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The direct and indirect consequences of climate change - with five South African provinces already declared drought disaster areas2 – would see increases in malaria, dysentery, cholera and dengue, compromised drinking water, a loss in production and food security and an increase in extreme weather events. South Africa faced a “desperate climate change emergency situation,” with heat waves above 40 degrees C already common and persistent. Pledging to continue his association’s collaboration with the national departments of health and environmental affairs, SAMA’s chairman, Dr Mzukisi Grootboom, said extreme weather would result in floods, droughts and heat waves. SAMA had set up a climate change task team, a draft position on climate change and health and was printing climate change posters. “Human health is a priority sector in responding to climate change and we commend the government for identifying it as such,” he said.
SAMA up for the challenge
SAMA would partner in government efforts and contribute its knowledge, authority and influence in local mitigation and adaptation efforts. Urgent, practical measures were called for. The World Health Organisation, (WHO), and the Climate and Health Council were drawing increasing attention to the “catastrophic impact” of climactic shifts on human health, and on the role healthcare professionals could play. The WHO puts a high number of deaths and disease globally down to avoidable environmental risks-including urban outdoor pollution, indoor smoke from the burning of solid fuels and biomass in poor countries; unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene; chemical exposure; and occupational diseases. Tragically, says Grootboom, the greatest burden falls crushingly on the health systems of developing countries — mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa —and poorer segments of the society. Water was fast becoming a scarce resource, with the next world war anticipated to be over water resources.
“The time of only speaking the right words is over and action is needed. Sadly, global warming and climate change are anthropogenic, i.e., human activity is primarily responsible for them”. Similarly, human responsive action was needed to address climate change and protect health.
There was however cause for optimism; the 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change asserted that climate change could be the biggest global health opportunity of the 21st century - if an urgent and multi disciplinary approach was adopted. Grootboom said his 17 500 members, other doctor groupings and healthcare professionals could make major contributions to climate change efforts via education and capacity-building, leadership and advocacy, surveillance and research, and collaboration. He repeated the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and other international experts forecast that 2015 is going to prove the warmest year ever on the global record and said there was a growing consensus among scientists that a greater than 2˚C increase in global temperatures above pre-industrial levels would have dangerous global impacts. “The earth is warming faster than at any other time in history and the impact is now being felt by every single one of us,” he said.
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About SAMA
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) is a non-statutory, professional association for public and private sector medical practitioners. Registered as an independent, non-profit Section 21 company, SAMA acts as a trade union for its public sector members and as a champion for doctors and patients.
Spokesperson
Chairperson: SAMA
Dr Mzukisi Grootboom
083 306 7779
mzukisi@mweb.co.za