(Recasts with WHO chief comments, previous MANILA) By Laura MacInnis GENEVA, April 7 (Reuters) - Climate change stands to exacerbate health crises in many countries already strained by inadequate hospitals, too few medical staff and uneven access to drugs, the head of the World Health Organisation said on Monday. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said that new patterns of global rainfall, droughts and storms could accelerate the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever in some regions, creating serious problems for poor nations. "The climate change-sensitive diseases and conditions are already creating huge burdens in many countries... The impact of climate change can act as an amplifier," she told a news conference in Geneva, where the United Nations agency is based. Confronting the health challenges from global warming will require concerted efforts to forecast changing weather patterns, fight mosquitoes and other disease-spreading bugs, distribute vaccinations and boost medical coverage, Chan said. "We need to help countries develop their already-weak health systems so that they are better prepared for whatever may come," she said. Emissions of heat-trapping carbon gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels in factories and cars, are rising sharply despite growing international attention to the risks of global warming. A U.N. climate panel has said greenhouse gas emissions have to peak within 10 to 15 years and halve by mid-century to avert the worst effects of warming, forecast to include rising ocean levels and more droughts, floods, heat waves and hurricanes. The WHO warned that such environmental shifts could cause water-borne and parasitic blights, such as cholera and lyme disease, to spread to new areas. Shigeru Omi, the head of the WHO's Western Pacific office, said that malaria and dengue fever appeared to be already affected by the spread of mosquitoes into cooler climates from the tropics. "Malaria-carrying mosquitoes are now found in areas where there was no malaria before," he told a separate news conference in Manila. "For dengue, there are many other factors responsible for the rise of the mosquitoes. But I am sure that climate change is certainly playing one of the many roles, that much we can say." Malaria kills at least 100,000 people each year. The WHO also estimates that there may be 50 million cases of dengue infection around the world every year, of which half a million require hospitalisation. Omi said the WHO is setting aside $10 million for an advocacy programme to inform people and governments about the health dangers of climate change and steps that can be taken to address them. (Additional reporting by Raju Gopalakrishnan in Manila; editing by Sami Aboudi)
Head of the World Health Organisation's Western Pacific office Shigeru Omi gestures during an interview in Manila April 7, 2008. Climate change is one of the factors causing an increase in ...
