HYDERABAD: Close to 10,000 people were affected by dengue fever this year in Telangana. The World Health Organisation’s new campaign, ‘climate change is a health issue’, points out that an increase in number of vector-borne diseases, such as dengue, is one of the consequences of climate change. Experts and doctors across the State, however, are sceptical about the said claim. While admitting that climate change is definitely affecting the lifestyle of people, especially in the urban areas, they are unsure whether a warmer climate could cause for increase in dengue cases.
According to the WHO, warmer temperatures are expanding the habitats for mosquitoes and putting millions of more people at risk of mosquito-borne diseases, including dengue. It may be mentioned here that while dengue is usually rampant during the months of September to November, the cases this year had been spread across the months of early August to late November, with more than eight confirmed deaths that the State refused to acknowledge.
Speaking to Express, Dr Hari Kishan, a consultant physician with a leading corporate hospital in the city, said, “Higher temperatures definitely cater to favourable conditions for the breeding of vectors, however it cannot be the only deciding factor, as higher temperature along with moisture in terms of rain is also a precedent. Thus, a phenomena like this is likely to affect over-crowded countries like ours. But the long stretches of summer months that have expanded in the last couple of years are surely important contributors to the increasing number of dengue cases.”
On the other hand, Dr A Rambabu, a senior entomologist with the GHMC, said, “With my 15 years of experience, I can say that climate change has a very miniscule role to play in the case of vector-borne diseases, especially dengue. There have been changes in patterns; for example, dengue is prevalent in the months of September to November, yet in many tribal areas in the State, we have spotted dengue cases as early as April. But I wouldn’t attribute it to increase in temperature.”
He further added, “However, we do want to address the rising concern of dengue, and thus, for 2020 we have prepared a health calendar. Awareness campaigns for schools and residential areas will begin as early as February so that we can tackle the cases of breeding before citizens get affected.”
Dr B Prathap Reddy, president of Indian Medical Association, agreed that climate change on a whole should be considered seriously as it could have implicating effects on citizens’ health. “The change in climate and increase in temperature lead to tuberculosis and other bacterial diseases. The change in climate also leads to the breeding of different viruses that may not be native to the region, bringing in a plethora of viral infections that never affected people in that region.” He added that one of the leading results of climate change is the increase in vector borne diseases.