Lecture on El Nino, Climate Change and Human Health at the Summer University Programme

*ALIGARH March 9:* “The idea that place and location can influence health is
a very old and familiar concept in the Western medicine and traces back to
the time of Hippocrates when physicians observed that certain diseases
seemed to occur in some places and not in other, or the intensity of some
diseases was usually 'region specific'”, said Prof. Rais Akhtar, Emeritus
Scientist, Centre for Study of Regional Development, J.N.U., New Delhi. He
was delivering lecture on “El Nino, Climate Change and Human Health” at the
Summer University programme organized by the Department of Zoology, Aligarh
Muslim University. He said people have also been aware of the process of
disease diffusion across geographic regions for centuries. Prof. Akhtar
spoke at length on the environment-health association with special focus on
dimensions of medical geography, which is generally termed as the branch of
human geography concerned with the geographic aspects of health (status) and
health care (systems).

Prof. Akhtar said that the term El Nino (Spanish-Christ child) was
originally used by fishermen along the coast of Equador and Peru to refer to
a warm current that typically appears around Christmas time and lasts for
several months. El Nino (1998) severely affected the climate scenario in
India with extreme heat waves and cold waves that claimed high mortality.
Higher temperatures over the coming decades are expected to cause more
smoggy days and heat waves contributing to a greater number of illnesses and
deaths in the United States, according to international climate scientists.

India will also be greatly affected by climate change. The effect will be
experienced in the reduction of the snow cap size in the Himalayas, retreat
of glaciers that feed the rivers, an increased flooding of the snow-fed
rivers initially and then partial drying up of the rivers, and formation of
new lakes and flooded lakes at upper altitudes.

In general climate change will perturb world's various aspects of physical
and biological systems which in turn influence human health. Rainfall
anomaly and heat wave conditions play an important role in causing
ill-health in various ways.

Prof. Akhtar said that there is a growing pressure from developed countries
on the developing world to reduce greenhouse gas emission that finally
resulted in the failure of Copenhagen Conference.

Prof. Rais Akhtar did his post graduate from Agra University and M.Phil. and
Ph.D. from AMU. Prof. Akhtar is a recipient of Leverhulme Scholarship of
University of Liverpool. He has also received fellowships from the
Universities of Kashmir, Zambia & London. Later he received Visiting
Fellowships from University of Sussex, Commonwealth Secretariat, Belgium and
French Government. Prof. Akhtar is a member of the Inter Governmental Panel
on Climate Change and has received a Joint Winner Nobel Peace Prize Award
(IPCC, 2007).

He is a visiting Professor, University of Paris. He has delivered lectures
on Medical Geography at the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene,
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, John Hopkins University School of
Hygiene & Public Health, Institute of Public Health, University of Pisa and
Nuffield School for Health, Leeds. He has published 14 books and a number of
research papers in International Journals.