Policy makers have been urged to consider incorporating mental health interventions into the climate change and pandemic preparedness and response strategies.
The Director of the Africa Region at the Pandemic Action Network, Aluso Aggrey said that financing for pandemic preparedness must transcend philanthropy and be rooted in sustainable, equitable strategies.
Making these sentiments during his address at HENNET Members Meeting, Aluso observed how as the world goes by and connects the impacts of pandemics, outbreaks are becoming more severe.
“The outbreak of communicable diseases is increased due to climate change since 50 percent of pathogens get capacity to spread and cross from one place to another because they are from animals to humanity, making it a problem,” he reiterated.
The Director noted that there is an increasing number of temperature making mechanisms to be modified with temperature bringing a group of diseases called climate sensitive diseases that are automated by climate change.
Additionally, Aluso disclosed that Africa is experiencing more frequent outbreaks due to human activities such as urbanization and the food system where the former is too unfit in Africa making humans to come across animals thus human habitation becomes pretty challenging.
According to the Director, the most important thing about the state of the country’s preparedness is to understand where the pandemic comes from and being focused in terms of actively managing risk.
“When we live things to venture, we will continue having disrupted lives which nobody likes. We currently have Mpox, a virus coming from monkeys and the challenge is how we assess whether something requires a lot of attention in terms of how transition is being done, such as, an alert system that helps the country,” cautioned Aluso.
He added that, World Health Organization (WHO) manages the whole system of the alert system that helps the countries know what needs to be paid attention to and both Africa CBC and WHO have also declared M-POX a public health emergency of continental and international concern for the first time.
Speaking during the health civil society organization meeting on pandemic preparedness and response, Registered Pathologist, Kenyan Structure, Dr Pamela Kaituru noted that climate change is one of the most pressing global challenges today since it affects Agriculture, Infrastructure, service delivery among others.
She stressed that the increase in climate change diseases’ effects are not only on the body but also on mental health adding that the Kenya Meteorological Department has revealed that people’s mental health can affect them due to climate change stressors including disasters, displacements, fear of illness among others.
Further, Dr Kaituru announced that the metrological directors at the county level are working with the community to downscale the focus to the context of the county to spread the weather forecast which will help and engage the people to understand climate change that drives diseases affecting human health.
Kaituru maintained that climate change is a concern of the people and should be internalized, saying that when it comes to climate change, communities’ resilience and adaptation should be strengthened since science has approved the extremes are getting more severe whereby there are more droughts in the country that are becoming more frequent through nature.
“In the East Africa Vision 2050, we are looking at a future that is a prosperous, competitive, secure, stable and politically united community,” stated Dr Kaituru, adding that the rate of climate change is dissembling the people since the resource-based conflict related to climate change has become a concern in addition to the strength of the disease.
Addressing the policies that speak to health, she acknowledged the civil society organizations for using the policies that are aligned with the countries policies and what it says as they work in their various organizations.
She also urged them to align policy documents and processes and understand it so that they can be able to influence the community that they are serving.