Fikremariam Tesfaye
9 April 2008
Addis Ababa — World Health Day 2008 was commemorated on Monday in all the 193 member states of the World Health Organization including Ethiopia This year's world day id being marked under the theme Protecting Health From Climate Change.
In selecting climate change as the theme for this year's World Health Day, WHO aims to turn the attention of policy-makers to some compelling evidence from the health sector.
In her key note address at half day discussion organized in connection with the annual event, WHO Country Representative Dr. Fatoumata Nafonat said climate change has become an emerging issue for the health sector because health was one of the areas most effected by climate change.
Due to the low level of development, poverty, lack of education and lack of strong public health infrastructure, developing countries will be the most affected and the least able to cope with the impact of climate change on health, Dr. Fatoumata pointed out.
Although climate change is a global phenomenon, its consequences will not be evenly distributed. Scientists agree that developing countries and small island nations will be the first and hardest hit.
WHO has identified five major health consequences of climate change which is likely to affect problems that are already huge, largely concentrated in the developing world, and difficult to combat. Fatoumata added that, as the adverse effects of climate change on health are wide ranging, strong collaboration and partnership among the relevant public sectors, donors, NGO's and civil society organizations was very important.
"On this World Health Day, I am announcing increased WHO efforts to respond to these challenges," WHO Executive Director.....said in a statment sent to The Daily Monitor.
"WHO and its partners are devising a research agenda to get better estimates of the scale and nature of health vulnerability and to identify strategies and tools for health protection," she added.
This year's day of the annual world health day commemoration began 60 years ago, aims at raising public awareness of the health consequence of climate change, advocate for interdisciplinary and intersectoral partnership for developing viable strategy to deal with the impact of climate change on health and to obtain the commitments of all stakeholders to work together infacing the change of protecting health from change.
The half day discussion forum held at the Ghion Hotel was organized by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the WHO country office in Ethiopia.
Minister of Health Tewodros Adhanom, repesentatives from various other UN agencies attended the discusion.
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