ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is the highest change vulnerable in terms of climate change and is ranked 18 out of 191 counters in terms of vulnerability, said Dr Quaid Saeed, chief executive officer of Islamabad Heath Regulatory Authority.
While speaking at a seminar on “Climate Change and Health System Resilience” organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Dr Saeed said that there is a need to understand that the health system is composed of many stakeholders- public private sector- 70 percent patients get treatment from the private sector and role of the private sector in the health sector is rapidly increasing.
However, he said that the private sector is not part of the discussion or planning of the government. He also added that a study was conducted to assess 191 countries with respect to their vulnerability in terms of climate change and Pakistan was at highest at 18th out of 191 counters in terms of vulnerability. He said that his suggestion would be that the private sector should be included in future planning to cope with the impacts of climate change.
He further stated that climate change has a direct impact on diseases and increases zygotic disease. He said that because of climate change, the ecosystem is disturbed and animal virus jumps into humans by a change of their genes and this happened in the Covid-19. He said that climate change also has an indirect impact on food and other crops due to a change in weather patterns.
With regard to climate change impact in Karachi and how the health institution is responding to it, Dr Zafar Fatemi said that the health system is the first line of response to climate change and added that the adaption plan has been by the government in terms of climate change is a good thing.
Dr Mukhtiar, the Director of the Directorate of Malaria Control (DoMC), MoNHSRC said in 2021 there were only 370,000 malaria cases, and after the flood, the cases increased to three million and dengue and malaria cases are increasing due to climatic change.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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