It is good news,at last someone have realized in Pakistan to have a research on global warming with following criteria, may be helpful for policy makers and funding organizations.
“The research utilize meta analysis of existing literature on global warming and public health, the central question of what global warming is all about and how does the latter impact Pakistan’s health in accordance to literature discussion, assessment and analysis. Research objective adheres to the following salient points: impact of environmental change on health, Pakistan context, several causes which bring the changes, how can authorities or general public tackle health related problems caused by global warming. There can be scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activity will change Earth’s climate. The recent warming by 0·5°C is partly attributable to such anthropogenic emissions. Climate change will affect human health in many ways mostly adversely. The need to summarize epidemiological evidence of how climate variations and trends affect various health outcomes.
Assess evidence there is that global warming affected Pakistan health, reviewing published estimates of impeding health effects of climate change at present times. Researches have focus on thermal stress, extreme weather events, and infectious diseases, with some attention to estimates of regional food yields and hunger prevalence. An emerging broader approach address wide spectrum of health risks due to social, demographic and economic disruptions of climate change. Evidence and anticipation of adverse health effects will strengthen Pakistan based case for pre-emptive policies, will guide priorities for planned adaptive strategies. Indeed, environmental change and pollutants stress individuals and populations, and may be reflected in the global resurgence of infectious disease as these stresses cascade through the community assemblages of species.
Research will suggest framework for integrating surveillance of Pakistan health outcomes with climatic monitoring. Thus, initial concern about the possible effects of global warming have declined with realization that the spread of tropical diseases is likely to be limited and controllable. However, direct effects of heat causes substantial numbers of deaths among vulnerable people such as during summer. Action to prevent deaths from rising is obvious medical challenge presented by global rise in temperature. For example, air conditioning has reduced them in the United States and technologies such as fans, shade and buildings designed to keep cool on hot days have generally done so in Europe as the energy requirements of air conditioning accelerate global warming, combination of the older methods, backed up by use of air conditioning when necessary, can provide the ideal solution.
Despite availability of technologies, occasional record high temperatures still cause sharp rises in heat related deaths as the climate warms such action at home can be effective than transporting the patient to hospital, even in tropical regions. The aggregate human impact on the environment now exceeds the limits of absorption or regeneration of biophysical systems. The resultant global environmental changes include altered atmospheric composition, widespread land degradation, depletion of fisheries, freshwater shortages and biodiversity losses. The drive for further social and economic development, plus an unavoidable substantial increase in population size will tend to augment these large-scale environmental problems. Overall, large scale environmental changes are likely to increase the range and seasonality of various infectious diseases, food inscurity, water stress, population displacement with adverse health consequences (2000).
Most directly, it can generate more, stronger and hotter heat waves, which will become especially treacherous if the evenings fail to bring cooling relief, lack of nighttime cooling seems to be in the cards; the atmosphere is heating unevenly and is showing the biggest rises at night, in winter and at latitudes higher than about 50 degrees. Prolonged heat can enhance production of smog and the dispersal of allergens and linked to respiratory symptoms. Human infections are intricately linked to the global environment by altering this environment, global warming has significant potential to intensify selected infectious diseases ( 2000). Thus, climatic effects are predicted to include crowding, famine, water contamination, human migration, and alterations in vector ecology, all of which increase infectious diseases. Global warming will cause economic strain that may divert public health resources from existing infections. Through planning and research, there can mitigate health effects of global warming by means of policy, politics, and global cooperation, Pakistan may reduce the environmental problems that cause global warming.
Global warming has serious implications for human life, effect of global warming depends on the complex interaction between the human host population and the causative infectious agent, changes in the environment may trigger human migration, causing disease patterns to shift ( 2005 ). Disease transmission may be enhanced through the scarcity and contamination of potable water sources. Importantly, significant economic and political stresses may damage the existing public health infrastructure, leaving mankind poorly prepared for unexpected epidemics.
Global warming will certainly affect the abundance and distribution of disease vectors, altitudes that are cool to sustain vectors will become more conducive to them for instance, Malaria, dengue, plague, and viruses causing encephalitic syndromes are likely to be affected. Some models suggest that vector-borne diseases will become more common as the earth warms, although caution is needed in interpreting these predictions (2005). Clearly, global warming will cause changes in the epidemiology of infectious diseases as the ability of mankind to react or adapt is dependent upon the magnitude and speed of the change. Research will depend on ability to recognize epidemics early, to contain them effectively, to provide appropriate treatment, to commit resources to prevention and further investigation.”
http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/08/global-warming-and-its-impact-on-public-health.html
Tags: global warming