Pakistan’s disease burden may escalate further

Islamabad
Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Mushahidullah Khan has warned that Pakistan’s disease burden and its overall impact on socio-economic development made in recent years may further escalate because of rapidly changing and erratic climate.
“The disease burden is likely to increase in urban areas like Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar, where living standard and health quality of the people are continuously declining, particularly in the context of increasing air and water pollution,” he said.
He said primarily fuelled by increasing level of carbon pollution, climate change poses a grave risk to the health and well-being of people, particularly in developing countries like Pakistan right from aggravating the risk of asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses/allergies to the spread of certain vector-borne diseases.
The minister said that scientists have already projected that ozone concentration in most of the urban centres across the world including Pakistan would increase because of climate change, swelling worldwide the number of ozone-related emergency room visits for asthma by 7.3 per cent.
Senator Mushahidullah Khan highlighted that climate change has also caused rise in frost-free days and warmer air temperatures, as being witnessed in colder areas of Pakistan including Islamabad. These can, in turn, cause a greater production of plant-based allergens, he warned.
Referring to WHO studies on climate change impacts on human health, he said pre-existing health conditions make older adults particularly vulnerable to the respiratory impacts of air pollution. Higher rates of diabetes, obesity and asthma in some communities may place them at greater risk of climate-related health impacts.