Explained: Why is climate change a part of medical curriculum?
According to NASA’s Global Climate Change website, “while Earth’s climate has changed throughout its history, the current warming is happening at a rate not seen in the past 10,000 years”.
Hyderabad: For the past few years, the call to include conditions directly related to climate change into the medical curriculum, in a bid to prepare our healthcare workforce has been getting louder than ever.
Last week, a newspaper reported that the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is working with various medical councils to introduce concepts such as rising heat and damaging air quality and their effects in medical education and the training of medical personnel in India.
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According to NASA’s Global Climate Change website, “while Earth’s climate has changed throughout its history, the current warming is happening at a rate not seen in the past 10,000 years”.
And this warming will affect environmental and social determinants of health – clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food, and secure shelter.
“Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress,” said World Health Organisation in an article, adding that areas with weak health infrastructure – mostly in developing countries – will be the least able to cope.
Including climate change in our medical school curriculum will not only prepare our healthcare workers to be prepared but will also encourage them to find solutions, and work on such cases swiftly.