Geneva, May 20 (Prensa Latina) Climate change and its consequences were at the center of the plenary of the World Health Organization Assembly, which continues today its meetings in the Palais des Nations, chaired by Cuba. Several ministers and other representatives noted the need to include the item on the development agenda beyond 2015.
The environmental worsening and global warming are having an undeniable direct or indirect impact on the populations, told Prensa Latina First Deputy Minister of Health of Cuba, Jose Angel Portal.
He explained that this phenomenon causes the emergence of new diseases and the proliferation of transmitting agents, decreased water availability and food production, the rarefied air and the increase of natural disasters.
Here in the assembly has been talk about the resurgence of certain influenza viruses, coronavirus’ respiratory syndromes, Ebola and dengue, which have been propagated by climate change, he said.
Another issue debated was the increase of deaths by heat stress and solar radiation, which raise the skin diseases and especially cancer.
Portal considered that including this in the post 2015 agenda is imperative if we want to save humanity.
Cuba has been supporting all this initiatives to improve health of peoples and it is effectively compromised in the fight to stop the irreparable harm to the environment posed by climate change, he said.
Speaking at the plenary, representatives from Asia, Africa, America and Europe highlighted the importance of the Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) decided to give relevance to this problem.
The delegation from Maldivas warned that in this insular State of the Indian Ocean pollution have caused the increase of dengue and respiratory diseases, among others.
The representation of Brunei said that now in the country there are diseases that previously had not, while France warned that climate change lengthens the period of transmission of certain diseases and spread it to other.
Discussion on the issue will continue on Wednesday at the Palais des Nations, where participating delegations of the 194 member countries of WHO.
