Face to face with effects of climate change

Climate variability and human diseases have never been more related than in these times. Environmental degradation due to erratic human activity and poor environmental conditions due to various other factors have all led to environmental stress and provide favourable conditions conducive for development of very new diseases hitherto known and some unknown to human kind; easy spread of especially infectious diseases through migrations, food shortages and all other socio-economic and structural changes favourable for the spread of HIV and increased impact of AIDS on vulnerable communities. Climate variability causes increased mobility, morbidity and mortality; conditions that lead people to engage in risky behaviours or increased vulnerability. Whatever reasons for the near absence of HIV and AIDS in climate change debates and literature, many of the factors which, according to McMichael et al., (2003) and Racaniello (2004) contribute to the emergency of new infectious diseases which are linked directly and indirectly to climatic conditions.

Microbio adapatation and change, and drug resistance, changes in virulence, exposure of humans to disease vectors and reservoirs, and ecological changes alter the composition and size of insect vectors and animal reservoirs, among others. Climate change accounts for more than 300,000 deaths per year around the world and $125 billion of economic loss annually. This makes climate change a silent human crisis but yet the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time.

The impact of climate change has not received much prominence in my country Uganda but such changes and its effects are painfully being felt. In 2025, Uganda is likely to experience water stress according to recent report on water resources. People are dying of starvation and hunger like the recent case in Teso Region, Eastern Uganda; there are changes in water ecosystems like the dwindling levels of Lake Victoria; unpredictable seasons, loss of soil fertility and loss of agricultural output and hence increased household poverty and its implications. What are we doing to avert this looming catastrophe?