Diseases linked to climate change to be monitored

China plans to improve early warning systems for climate-sensitive diseases and strengthen the medical system's resilience and emergency response ability to extreme climate events as part of efforts to tackle climate change, which an action plan released on Tuesday dubbed the most complicated public health problem.

By next year, China will strengthen construction of a monitoring system for diseases that are sensitive to climate change and develop methods for assessing climate change's effects on health, according to the document, which was jointly released by the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration and 12 other government departments.

It added that a first round of evaluations of health risks linked to climate change and the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of society to climate change should also be completed next year. A list of scientific research tasks aimed at addressing emerging challenges will be drawn up.

The administration said that extreme weather events such as heat waves, flooding, freezing temperatures and cold waves as well as typhoons have become increasingly common and severe in recent years, posing challenges to survival and human health.

"Enhancing health adaptation and risk prevention capabilities against climate change is a top priority," it said in a statement explaining the document.

The action plan proposes a number of key tasks in achieving its goals, including formulating a basic catalog of climate-sensitive diseases and building an early warning system.

"Authorities should issue disease outbreak alerts and health advisories for vector-born infectious diseases such as plague, dengue fever, malaria, Japanese encephalitis and other emerging infectious diseases, as well as climate-related cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, mental disorders, allergic diseases and other chronic illnesses," it said. "Forecasts of extreme weather events should also be strengthened."

The document also highlighted boosting emergency measures against flooding, mudslides and other extreme events, including upgrading equipment inventories, drawing up emergency plans and carrying out drills.

Hospitals will be guided to improve preparedness and resilience, especially increasing their capability to maintain treatment capacity during extreme weather events.

According to a blue book released by China Meteorological Administration in July, last year was the warmest year on record globally, and China also experienced a historic high in average temperatures.

From 1961 to 2023, the annual average surface temperature in China increased by 0.3 C every 10 years and the annual average precipitation increased by 5.2 millimeters every decade.

Wang Lin, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the number of cardiovascular disease patients tends to climb following torrential rain.

The increase in cases is associated with fear of natural disasters as well as interrupted transportation that hampers prompt transfer of patients to hospital, he said during an academic conference in Anshun, Guizhou province, late last month.

The authorities should provide weather-related risk alerts and health protection guidelines under special circumstances, he said.

To mitigate the effects of climate change, Wang suggested disease control and meteorology authorities jointly release alerts for health hazards during extreme weather events, and also guide the public to learn protection measures and improve their health literacy.

Ren Minghui, a professor at Peking University's School of Public Health and a former assistant director-general at the World Health Organization, said that intergovernmental and multidisciplinary collaboration is particularly important in coping with climate-related health hazards.

During a speech delivered to a sub-forum of the China International Fair for Trade in Services earlier this month, he said that mitigation and adaptation measures are equally important. Mitigation involves adjusting economic systems and natural ecosystems to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while adaptation means enhancing risk identification and management to lower the negative impact of climate problems.

Ren added that a lack of funds, human resources and research are major challenges confronting most countries. He suggested China step up international collaboration and increase research funding and policymaking.