Earth Today | High stakes for climate change and health in small islands
Published:Thursday | January 9, 2025 | 12:07 AM
THE WORLD is once again being called to look at the prevailing climate change risks to the health of the populations in small island developing states (SIDS), including those of the Caribbean, where there is an already growing non-communicable diseases and mental health problem.
The risks have been laid bare in the 2024 Small Island Developing States Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health & Climate Change.
“Climate change is increasing the risk of transmission of many infectious diseases that threaten public health,” the report said, citing the example of dengue.
“The increase in dengue transmission worldwide over the past 50 years poses a substantial public health threat in many countries, including SIDS. The suitability for dengue transmission by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, as estimated by the basic reproduction number (a measure of transmissibility), was 33 per cent higher in 2013-22 compared with in 1951-60 across SIDS (18 per cent, 34 per cent, and 40 per cent higher in the AIS (Archipelagic and Island States), Caribbean, and Pacific subregions, respectively,” the report explained.
“An increase of 32 per cent was noted for transmission via Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. These increases in basic reproduction numbers are particularly worrying given the outbreaks of dengue in many SIDS in the last 10 years, particularly in Indian Ocean SIDS,” it added.
Jamaica’s own Professor Anthony Chen, in his 2006 publication The Threat of Dengue Fever in the Caribbean: Impacts and Adaptation, flagged the dangers of dengue and climate change in SIDS.
According to his study, “a temperature increase of two degrees Celsius from 30 degrees Celsius to 32 degrees Celsius can shorten the extrinsic incubation period of the viruses from 12 to 7 days (for dengue type 2) and decreasing the incubation period by five days can lead to a threefold higher transmission rate of dengue”.
Professor Chen is a celebrated physicist who served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and is a Nobel Peace Prize winner for his contributions to climate change research.
On the subject of mental health, the Lancet report said that the risks are associated with the varied other risks of climate change, and that children would seem to be especially vulnerable.
“Exposure to the devastation of extreme weather events that climate change is making increasingly frequent and intense could lead to acute psychological distress through stress and anxiety disorders within affected communities, with people potentially unable to cope or recover within the short or medium term. Climate change-related migration and forced displacement can also have adverse mental health consequences for migrant populations, particularly if they are not adequately supported throughout the migration or displacement journey,” the report said.
“Surveys in the aftermath of devastating hurricanes suggest that children are particularly susceptible to longer-term post-traumatic stress disorder after displacement secondary to extreme weather events,” it added.
These are also areas, the report said, that need dedicated research.