By Chuks Oyema-Aziken
Minister of State for Environment, Dr. Iziaq Salako has called for urgent strengthening of the health system and workforce to mitigate challenges posed by climate change.
The call was made at the annual general meeting and scientific conference of National Association of Resident Doctors at Abeokuta recently.
In his paper titled “Building a resilient Health Workforce: Embracing climate-centric innovations”, he said that the prevailing trajectory of climate change is posing an existential threat to humanity, sustainable development, planetary health and affecting the vulnerable groups disproportionately.
“According to the WHO (2023), the overall health costs of climate change amount to $2 billion–$4 billion and is projected to further escalate over time, reaching $54 trillion for a 1.5°C increase and $69 trillion or a 2°C increase by 2100 (WHO 2023a).
“The challenges posed to the health system and workforce by climate change requires the strengthening of the system to mitigate and adapt.
“According to WHO (2015), Under high emissions scenarios, 400 million people in Nigeria are projected to be at risk of malaria by 2070, diarrhoea disease in children under 15 attributable to climate change is projected to be almost 10% by 2030 and heat related deaths in the elderly 65 years and above is projected to increase to about 80 per 100,000 annually by 2080 compared to the baseline of 3 as at 1990.
“The loss of livelihoods, displacement and food insecurity from climate disasters also exposes the people to malnutrition and higher risk of many diseases.
“Current flooding being experienced in our country is a litmus test, a gantlet to the resilience of our health system and our abilities to respond collaboratively across sectors to address the health challenges of climate change and extreme weather events. It is a clarion call to us that its better to act to mitigate climate change and not wait untill such catastrophe occurs.
“Against this background, it has become expedient that in strengthening the resilience of our health care system, we adopt climate-centric innovations and climate-proof the system.
