By A.I.Akyala PhD
Introduction
There is clear evidence that climate change is affecting countries around the world and that it poses a threat to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Current systems in place aimed at implementing the SDGs (especially SDGs 6, 7, 13, 14, and 15) have prioritized tackling issues that address climate change and environmental sustainability.
The fourth and fifth assessment reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasized the need for stakeholders (i.e., governments, policymakers, and academics) to take urgent actions on climate change to ensure sustainable development.
Recent studies have shared a similar agreement. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change through the Paris Agreement. Has emphasized the need to reduce CO2 emissions as one of the measures to tackle the problem.
The United Nations (UN) reported in 2022 the impact of severe flooding in the West and Central Africa axes. The incident resulted in acute human and physical losses, reflected in river overflows, displacement of people, and an increase in disease burdens and deaths in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Mali, Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, and Niger.
In Niger, the official estimate of flood victims was 206,513, with 56 deaths, 1200 houses damaged, 16,000 herds of cattle lost, and 9800 hectares of cultivated land lost. The case of Nigeria was not so different, with more than 100,000 people affected by about 21 local government areas. Similarly, almost all the Burkina Faso regions were affected, with 30,862 people impacted by flooding and violent winds.
Indeed, Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate variability and change. The literature identified some of the effects of the climate alterations in Africa, such as sea-level rise, glacier melting, water resources reduction, reduction in agricultural production and food security, lesser biodiversity increases in zoonotic diseases, and increase in erosion drought, and flood.
An increase in sea and land temperatures is an expression of the growth of warming, despite identifying water bodies, such as seas and oceans, as absorbers for climate distortions or ensuring eco-balance.
Globally, the impacts of climate change on public health are inconsistent. This inconsistency is because of geographical variations and the varying capacities of countries to adapt to these changes. Sensitization on the part of the representatives of public health systems on the health impacts of climate change is needed.
Therefore, to effectively address these impacts, the various health systems need to understand and consider the relationship between climate change and human health, sharing this knowledge with the relevant stakeholders.
The experience and sharing of knowledge regarding how climate change will affect human health will increase the preparedness of policymakers to respond to increases in the prevalence of some diseases.
Health Impacts of Climate Change in Africa
Conforming to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, climate change impacts on Africans’ health have been quite enormous, especially for vulnerable groups, such as the poor, women, and children. The challenge of water, food and vector-borne diseases, malnutrition, and mental health consequences can be attributed mainly to extreme weather events, temperature and rainfall patterns, thereby posing a health threat to the African continent.
Several studies have documented the impacts of climate change on health. Direct effects include the following: extreme events-related injuries and mishaps; infectious diseases associated with water, vector biology and food contamination; manifestations of allergies coupled with increased allergen productions; air pollution causing respiratory and cardiovascular diseases; and malnutrition related to food insecurity.
Mental health consequences, population migration, and civil conflicts are among other indirect health effects for which data to assess their magnitude of occurrence are limited. The U.C.L. Lancet Commission reports that climate change impacts account for 34% of the global disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The burden of the health risk associated with climate impacts is reported as three times as great in the worldwide population since Sub-Saharan Africa only accounts for 11% of its population.
Climate change will increase people’s exposure to water-related contaminants and cause illness by affecting fresh and marine water resources. Bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and other blue-green algae are pathogens and toxins that cause water-related diseases.
A review of cholera seasonality suggests a long association with climate change and poor sanitation. The outbreak of cholera is associated with heavy rainfall and floods, particularly in Ghana; Nigeria; and El Nino-Southern Oscillation in Southern and Eastern African countries. In Ghana, Namibia, South Africa and Ethiopia, precipitation and temperature increase the number of diarrhoeal cases, resulting in many deaths.Other climate-sensitive water-borne diseases reported in many parts of the continent with severe health outcomes are the Buruli ulcer and schistosomiasis, occurring in Ghana and Nigeria.
Malaria, leishmaniasis, Rift Valley fever, and tick and rodent-borne diseases are the most frequently occurring vector-borne diseases, causing myriads of premature morbidity and mortality rates in Africa. As one significant disease associated with climate change, malaria varies regionally with temperature, with its highest occurrence at 25 °C and falls above 28 °C . Studies investigated correlations of rainfall pattern, temperature variability, humidity, land and sea surface temperature and total precipitation with malaria in Africa.
The findings showed that temperature and precipitation patterns play a role in neglected tropical diseases, such as leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis. Leishmaniasis occurs mainly in Northern African countries with recent emergence in western regions due to co-infection.
Meanwhile, changes in rainfall pattern are causing Rift Valley fever in the Horn of Africa. In addition, there is a rise in tick distribution and tick-borne diseases in Eastern and Southern Africa due to land use and cover change; prolonged Harmattan periods across Africa engender favourable meningitis conditions.
Further studies explored the health impacts of climate change on nutrition and food security across Africa. Stunted growth and underweight conditions among children in Mali, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Ghana (grey literature) due to malnutrition and food insecurity have a significant association with the severity of drought, floods, and extreme temperature. Despite the availability of food sources and nutritional value in parts of Africa, low transportation networks due to floods hamper food distribution.
A study concluded that temperature and moisture influence fungal growth and aflatoxin production in cereals and legumes. Their presence inhibits infants’ growth due to the consumption of contaminated food. The delayed and sharp decrease in rainfall gives way to drought and decreased crop yields, culminating in malnutrition in the savanna zones in countries like Ghana. The population livelihood depends on rain-fed agriculture.
The severity of atmospheric warming causes low crop production, which has, in turn, increased food insecurity and shifted the population’s attention to imported food, which affects the livelihood of the vulnerable in Nigeria, South Africa, and Ghana , as well as causing malnutrition among children in Ethiopia . A study in Ethiopia concluded that about 2.7 million people required emergency food assistance in 2014, while 238,761 children had treatment for severe and acute malnutrition.
Some other studies extensively reviewed the health impacts of extreme weather events on the African continent.
The effect of floods from severe precipitation caused numerous fatalities and victims’ enforcement to leave their homes in the Eastern African countries, Central and Western Africa.
Some impacts of mental health consequences from severe climate events are anxiety, depression, social dysfunction, and loss of confidence as part of the health effects that beset the surviving populace.
Heat waves and heat-related health effects from extreme temperatures recently gained attention in Africa through increasing related death tolls. Heat rashes and multiple stressors in West African countries, involving Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Kenya in the East, and Zimbabwe and South Africa in the South , with children being the most affected .bMaintaining work levels and output due to extreme temperature decreases the agricultural workload in African countries. For instance, in a study conducted in South Africa, the reduced work capacities and outputs were attributed to heat waves, which caused severe sunburns, sleeplessness, irritability, and exhaustion in workers.
Risk assessments were conducted for extreme health impacts across African countries, especially Kenya, both at the regional and city scale. The findings showed that 10,000 to 86,000 people would be affected by severe floods by 2030, which will cost the country between ZAR 7 and ZAR 58 million.
Conclusion
Climate change and the effects on human health, the environment, and society will continue to be significant issues in African countries, for which answers need to be found. They pose a challenge to health systems, the governments and health professionals in the coming years. Our findings will be widely shared with health professionals in African countries to support this process to address the barriers to implementing coping and adaptation strategies of climate change impacts on public health.
There is a perceived need for a greater understanding of climate-related health impacts, which can only be addressed through interdisciplinary research across hierarchical levels and geographical and political boundaries. Because of the challenges that are and will be faced in Africa, it is necessary to sensitize the public and politicians to this topic and support health professionals’ work.
- A.I.Akyala PhD is an Associate Prof of Infectious Diseases and Public Health Epidemiology. Director Global Health and Infectious Diseases Control Institute, Nasarawa State University, Keffi
