KUWAIT: The World Health Organization (WHO) stressed the importance of building a climate-flexible health system in Kuwait in order to achieve sustainable development targets and determine the health critical risks of climate, shedding light on requirements of adaption, WHO Representative in Kuwait Dr Asad Hafeez said Wednesday.
At the national workshop, Dr Hafeez added that "It is critical to build a climate resilient health system in Kuwait, towards this end, identifying climate sensitive health risks now and in the future, understanding groups of people that are the most vulnerable, and highlighting the adaptation needs to inform policy and programs are all pressing outcomes of this workshop."
Climate change is an internationally urgent issue that requires treatment, regarding its negative impact on human health, as it is capable of undermining decades of progress in global health, and presents achievement of sustainable development, he affirmed.
WHO in Kuwait carried out a national training workshop regarding the health impacts of air pollution in the year 2022, to build critical capabilities with the utilization of a programming tool related to WHO, allowing to measure calculations of the health impacts resulting from exposure to air pollution, called (AirQ+), he said.
The latest reports indicated the increasing threats climate change is forming in the current world, especially in the region located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, including the increase of severe high temperatures, and sand storms, that has a direct and indirect effect on humans and their health.
This workshop was developed in cooperation with the Environmental Health Unit of the Public Health Directorate and its objective was to work with the core national technical group on identifying priority vulnerabilities and adaptation measures associated with climate change and health.
Recently, multiple reports have indicated the increased threat posed by climate change on the world and specifically in the Eastern Mediterranean region, including increased prevalence of extreme heat and dust storms which have a direct and indirect impact on human health and well-being.