Ilesh Jani, vice ministro da Saude.
Maputo, 3 Nov (AIM) – Mozambique’s Deputy Minister of Health, Ilesh Jani, has called for urgent investment in the adaptation and resilience of the Mozambican Health System in order to respond to the impacts of climate change on public health.
According to Jani, who was speaking on Thursday, at the opening in Maputo of a conference on the impact of climate change, the future scenario for global health will be bleak, if measures such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions are not taken internationally.
“We also need to invest urgently in the adaptation and resilience of the health system to minimize the effects of extreme weather events on health”, he said, explaining that extreme events are directly associated with an increase in the frequency and severity of outbreaks and epidemics caused by vector-borne diseases, diarrheal diseases, malnutrition, and chronic diseases, including mental illness and trauma.
The health system, he said, has suffered the negative impact of the destruction of health facilities and disruption in the provision of essential health services.
According to Jani, cyclones Idai in 2019 and Freddy in 2023 not only destroyed infrastructure and health equipment, but also caused the immediate onset of major cholera epidemics in the central provinces of Sofala and Zambezia. Over 3,500 cases were recorded in Sofala in 2019 and over 10,000 cases in Zambézia in 2023.
“After Cyclone Idai, we recorded, for example, an outbreak of pellagra, a disease associated with poor nutrition, in the district of Nhamatanda, in Sofala”, he added.
In order to respond to the challenges posed by climate change, the Ministry of Health, according to Jani, is carrying out a series of actions, particularly the drafting of the National Plan for Adapting the Health Sector to Climate Change.
Technical guidelines are also being drawn up for the development and maintenance of health infrastructures and equipment, he added.
“One of our actions was to carry out the First Assessment of the Health Sector’s Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change in 2019, which showed that 42 districts have a high level of health vulnerability to climate change”, he said.
(AIM)
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