M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, March 15: A one-day orientation cum training under the national programme on climate change and human health was held in Garhwa on Tuesday.
The event was conducted by the Garhwa district epidemiologist Dr Santosh Mishra.
Dr. Mishra speaking to this correspondent said that there is a relationship between climate and disease. Every region has a varied climate. Some are very hot while others are cold or dry or rainy, he added.
Dr. Mishra also talked about heat waves, cold waves, cloud bursts, frost, hailstones, floods, earthquakes etc.
“All these have an effect on human health in one way or the other and this is what we tried to drive our point home today in the orientation cum training programme,” added Dr. Mishra.
“Each such climate has its own trail of disease and this orientation cum training programme was to prepare health workers to combat it without pushing any panic button,” said Dr. Mishra.
He said that water logging is a very common sight. Very few will understand that such a pool of water left for days harbours many kinds of health hazards, he added.
Water plays a major role in the outbreak of disease and its climatic features are to be understood analytically.
Asked if such readiness for combating diseases triggered by climate change does not come close to disaster management, Mishra said that disaster management is right on the heels of it.
Within two years 2022-23 and 2023-24 every district in India is to have its draft of the impact of climate change on public health.
“Each district is to come up with its action plan. They have to have a district nodal officer for climate change,” reminded Mishra.
“It is just the beginning of a long journey towards better mass health. Let people know about it and things will start taking shape for the good,” he said.
