The roles health care providers should play to mitigate the effects of climate change on global health.
The purpose of this paper is to identify how health professionals can help in reducing the impact of climate change on the health of everyone all over the world. Many health professionals have neglected the fact that climate change is a threat to global health (Brahic, 2009). On the other hand, they have only been concentrating on other health problems. It’s a high time the doctors woke up from this slumber and came to reality. In doing this they would save the lives of many individuals. These roles are diverse, correlated, and apply to all health practitioners from neurosurgeons to pharmacists to dentists.
Health professionals indeed have no direct blame for the causes of climate change. However, they can offer advice and warning to people on the health effects that are associated with climate change. These include water and sanitation which if not taken into consideration may lead to an outbreak of severe diseases such as cholera, dysentery, etc. They should as well advise on the disease patterns due to changes in climate patterns and when to prepare for possible disease outbreaks (The Lancet, 2009).
They also need to give information on food, shelter and human settlement, population, and migration. Above all, they should assist during the occurrence of extreme events like floods and heatwaves. By succeeding in the above they shall have played a big role by reducing deaths that arise from the effects of climate change (The Lancet, 2009).
References
Brahic. (2009). Climate Change. Web.
The Lancet Commission (2009). Vol 373, Web.