TEMPERATURE VARIABILITY, DENGUE DISEASE AND KIRIBATI: A BRIEF OVERVIEW Kali Ratan Chakma Abstract: In Pacific Island countries, including Kiribati, beside natural disasters, climate change would exacerbate the human vulnerability to numerous infectious diseases like dengue. The climate of the Republic of Kiribati is hot and humid. The country is vulnerable to climate change due to its unique characteristics. The Island nation consists of33 atoll islands, 32 of which are low lying. The atolls are divided into three different groups; Gilbert, Line and Phoenix. Like other sectors, for example, agriculture and water resources, human health, especially dengue will be affected by climate change. The country has already faced several dengue outbreaks; the latest outbreak took place in 2008. The temperature projections by CSIRO show that by 2050, the temperature increase under a high emission scenario is to be in the range of 1.0-2.2 for the Gilbert Islands, 1.1-2.1 for the Phoenix Islands, and 1.0-2.0 for the Line Islands. The result of this paper shows that temperature variability influences the transmissions of dengue disease through creating favorable condition of vector population growth. Vectors become infectious in warm temperatures. The trend of high temperature will exacerbate the dengue transmission in the future of Kiribati. The study of World Bank also projected the high dengue epidemic potential; according to their projection by2025 the epidemic potential will be 0.22, which is identified as a high epidemic potential. On the other hand, the adaptation strategy did not suggest any specific adaptation strategy for dengue disease transmission reduction. The strategy mainly emphasizes the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation with other development plans. However, the country has two adaptation programs; Kiribati Adaptation Program (KAP) and National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA). Though, both programs identified dengue as a vulnerable sector, no program suggested any specific adaptation strategy for dengue. In KAP, among 50 top coping strategies, raising awareness got the top priority. The recommended adaptation strategies of this paper are divided into three categories; technical options, educational and advisory options, and cultural and behavioral options. The report also recommended the establishment of a monitoring and evaluation team to monitor and evaluate adaptation strategies. ror.isrj.net/UploadedData/719.pdf TEMPERATURE VARIABILITY, DENGUE DISEASE AND KIRIBATI: A BRIEF OVERVIEW by Kali Ratan Chakma in Review Of Research Vol. 3 | Issue. 7 | April. 2014 ISSN:-2249-894X
Posted on: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 04:38:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015