World Health Day 2022
Message from WHO Nigeria Head of Mission and Country Representative, Dr
Walter Kazadi Mulombo
Protocol:
In line with the established protocol.
I
bring you healthy regards of the World Health Organization (WHO) and join
experts and stakeholders in health and other sectors in Nigeria to share the
delight of the 2022 World Health Day Celebration.
World
Health Day has been observed annually on 7 April, since 1950, to commemorate
the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) two
years previously. This year’s theme, Our Planet, Our Health, serves as a
timely reminder of the inextricable link between the planet and our health, as
the burden of noncommunicable and infectious diseases rises alongside growing
incidence of climate-related challenges.
Climate
change is manifesting in increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, changing
rainfall patterns, and more frequent and severe extreme weather conditions. WHO
estimates that more than 13 million annual deaths globally are due to
avoidable environmental causes, including the climate crisis.
With
direct consequences for the key determinants of health, climate change is
negatively impacting air and water quality, food security, and human habitat
and shelter. The knock-on effect for the burden of heart and lung disease,
stroke and cancer, among others, is evident from statistics that point to NCDs
representing a growing proportion of Africa’s disease burden including Nigeria.[1]
In Nigeria and many part of African continent, NCDs are set to overtake
communicable diseases, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional conditions combined,
to become the leading cause of death by 2030.[2] COVID-19, along with spiraling obesity, diabetes
and hypertension rates, compounds the challenge, highlighting the urgency of a
multi-sectoral response.
In Nigeria climate change is already increasing the
vulnerability of health systems. Warming of 2-3°C is estimated to increase the
higher risks of malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, Lassa fever, cholera and
other diseases especially in coastal regions such as Lagos and Port Harcourt
and in the Lake Chad Basin.
Consequently, Nigeria’s commitment to reduce
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emission by 20% unconditionally and 47% with international
support, and the development the Sectoral Action Plan (SAP) for the implementation
of the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in the key priority sectors are
commendable.
During the past two decades, most public health events
have been climate-related, whether they were vector- or water-borne,
transmitted from animals to humans, or the result of natural disasters. For
example, diarrhoeal diseases are the third leading cause of disease and death
in children younger than five in Africa, a significant proportion of which is
preventable through safe drinking water, and adequate sanitation and hygiene.
However, 3 in 10 people in Nigeria don't have
clean water close to home, putting them under constant threat from waterborne
diseases like cholera. The more our climate changes, the more challenging this
becomes. Though in 2018, President Mohammmed Buhari declared a state of
emergency in Nigeria’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector, yet 30 per
cent of Nigerians do not have access to a basic water services, more than half
of rural water sources are contaminated. of the resultant effect of inadequate access to WASH
services is increasing child deaths linked to outbreaks of cholera and WASH
related diseases[3].
Meanwhile,
a heating world is seeing mosquitos spread diseases further and faster than
ever before, with serious consequences for Nigeria which reported 31.9%%
of all malaria cases recorded in Africa region and 27%
of global cases in 2021.
In 2018, African health and environment
ministers endorsed the 10-year Libreville Declaration on Health and Environment
in Africa, signed in 2008. This is a WHO-supported framework aimed at promoting
government investment in addressing environmental problems that impact human
health - such as air pollution, contamination of water sources, and ecosystem
damage.
With Nigeria population estimated at 208 million and projected to grow to
surpass that of the United States by 2050, at which point it would become the
third largest country in the world., we can expect burgeoning urbanization into areas
exposed to natural hazards, and a concomitant increase in associated injuries,
disease and deaths. As such, I urge our WHO State offices across the 36 states in
Nigeria to urgently initiate climate change and health adaptation and
mitigation actions.
Being part of the solution, in 2021, WHO has
facilitated the signing of 1st ever Nigeria Health Sector Ministerial
Commitment and Public Declaration to building a climate-resilient and
sustainable health system with deadlines prior to COP26 climate summit in
Glasgow in October 2021. WHO has also supported Nigeria to develop her health
climate profiles in 2015. And prior to the onset of the first index of COVID-19
in Nigeria in 2020, WHO has collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Health to
train over 74 experts and climate change health desk officers across the 36+1
states in Nigeria to coordinate health system climate initiatives at
sub-national level. We have supported Nigeria to activate a national Technical
Working Group on Climate Change and Health.
In a multisectoral one-health approach and in
furtherance to achieving the NDC, we shall support the development of Nigeria
National Health Adaptation Plan (HNAP) and Conduct assessment of the
vulnerability and adaptive capacity of the health systems to climate change comprising
essential public health interventions, in line with the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change and COP26
Health Programme.
Governments, civil society, nongovernment
organizations and communities need to work together, empowering one another to
ensure the continued delivery of essential health services during future extreme
events, while containing the growing incidence of environment- and
lifestyle-related diseases.
We cannot afford to lose sight of the fundamental
truth that the climate crisis, the single biggest threat facing humanity today,
is also very much a health crisis.
Learn more:
https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/2022
https://www.afro.who.int/sites/default/files/2017-06/decLibrevilleDeclaration.pdf
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health
https://www.who.int/news/item/09-11-2021-countries-commit-to-develop-climate-smart-health-care-at-cop26-un-climate-conference
https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/who-manifesto-for-a-healthy-recovery-from-covid-19
https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/protection-human-environment
