VietNamNet Bridge – The public needs to be better informed about climate change and the effects it can have on their health, officials have urged.

Speaking at a conference held yesterday, Nov 13, in HCM City, Tran Dac Phu, deputy director of the Health Ministry's Environment Management Department, said local authorities, scientists and healthcare organisations must provide free information to residents about the impact of climate change on people's health.

The ministry has issued an action on climate-change adaptation that includes a focus on the healthcare sector as well as an emphasis on raising public awareness about the effects of climate change.

Key objectives of the master plan include an estimation of the scale of possible pandemics that could appear as a result of climate change and identification of adaptation measures.

Upgrading the knowledge of local healthcare workers and the public are other major goals of the plan.

Speaking at the conference, Roger Few of the University of East Anglia said the rise in sea levels, global warming and extreme weather conditions had all affected human health.

The poor are the most vulnerable group.

In urban areas, the most common climate-change phenomena are an increase in temperatures and urban flooding, affecting human health.

In Viet Nam, centrally located Da Nang is the area that has been most affected by rises in temperature.

Other experts at the conference noted that residents should have proper ways to improve health at work and at home and that the healthcare sector should develop efforts to improve public hygiene as well as monitor and control the spread of disease.

They also called for improvement in the means of transport with the aim of reducing carbon dioxide emissions on streets, and reminded residents to use cooking equipment that does not emit carbon dioxide.

Few said that in the near future Viet Nam should outline a joint plan to be shared among various sectors on climate-change adaptation and preventive health measures.

VietNamNet/VNS