Weather-pattern changes are expected to have a negative effect on health and quality of life, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Monday.
”We need to take actions aimed at strengthening our infectious-diseases control, ensure safe use of water supplies and coordinate health actions in order to respond to diseases, emergencies and natural disasters,” she said.
Tshabalala-Msimang was speaking at a function to mark World Health Day in Boipatong, Gauteng.
She said climate change was expected to have an effect on seasonal diseases like malaria, and interventions in provinces such as Limpopo had been strengthened to assist in fighting malaria.
”… we have witnessed an unusual upsurge in the number of malaria cases to more than a thousand last month, compared with about 175 last year.
”Efforts are being made to increase awareness and ensure that those infected report to health facilities for prompt diagnosis and treatment,” she said.
”We have to strengthen our surveillance and ensure that our vector control measures [including timing for malaria spraying] respond to these changes accordingly.”
The minister said the effects of large-scale industrialisation needed to be noted.
”… we have to take into account the negative effects of such large-scale industrialisation, its impact on the environment and the climate and the far-reaching consequences it could have on health and the quality of life if not properly managed,” she said.
Quoting the findings of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tshabalala-Msimang said health implications of climate change related to extreme weather, temperature-related illnesses and death, water, food and rodent-borne diseases.
Climate change was also likely to have an effect on the food production chain and on poorer communities in particular.
She said crops in South Africa grew at appropriate climate conditions and the disturbance of climate patterns could see the destruction of crops.
”Interruptions in the food supply chain will worsen the already devastating situation with regard to food prices,” she said.
Climate change would also diminish hopes of, particularly, poor communities of producing their own crops for subsistence and economic survival.
”It undermines our very campaign of encouraging every family and community to have food gardens,” she said.
”We need to protect the health interests of the poorest among us who are always the hardest hit by these disasters due to their vulnerability. It is the poorest of the poor who are most likely to live in informal settlements situated in flood-risk areas,” she said. — Sapa