THE World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday urged governments to prioritize the effects of global warming in their health agenda as it warned that climate change may reverse whatever gains were achieved in fighting diseases due to poverty.

“Climate change threatens to reverse our progress in fighting diseases of poverty and widen the gaps in health outcomes between the richest and the poorest,” said Dr. Soe Nyunt-U, WHO representative to the Philippines.

Earlier, the WHO office in the Western Pacific Region based in Manila warned that Asia is expected to bear the brunt of the health effects of global warming, especially those whose health systems are weak and are not prepared for emerging diseases and unprecedented increases in illnesses.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said there is an “undeniable relationship” between global warming and health as proven during the 1998 El Niño phenomenon when dengue cases reached its second-highest peak.

The health chief explained that higher temperatures allow the shortening of the incubation period for dengue larva, thereby increasing the potential for disease transmission.

“This is a tell-tale sign [of the connection between] the two,” added Duque.

The Philippine’s National Epidemiology Center reported that there are currently a total of 6,848 dengue cases from January to March this year compared with 5,859 cases in the same period in 2007. 

Duque noted that other climate-sensitive diseases, such as malaria and typhoid fever, also had their peak in 1998.

“Climate-sensitive diseases, such as diarrhea, malaria, and protein-energy malnutrition already caused more than three million deaths globally. Even these numbers do not reflect the devastating indirect health impacts anticipated from the effect that climate change will have on food crops and the availability of fresh water in large areas of the world,” Nyunt-U said.

Duque said the Philippine government has created an interagency task force that will make a vulnerability assessment and come up with an action plan that will set as guide on how the country should address climate change.

Vietnamese vessels ‘monitored in Spratlys but no violation committed’

THE Philippine Air Force (PAF) on Wednesday disclosed that it had monitored two cargo and eight naval vessels with Vietnamese markings in the Spratlys in January and March, but admitted that the foreign ships did not violate the Code of Conduct prevailing in the area.

IN an effort to resolve the impasse on the country’s baselines issue, Speaker Prospero Nograles will meet with members of the House foreign affairs committee and the heads of the parties composing the majority coalition hoping to come out with a formula on how to best resolve conflicting positions among the three branches of government.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—A military official disclosed that the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines has changed its strategy to boost the number of its fighters and mass-based supporters.

THE Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) condemned on Wednesday the arrest of 13 farmers and advocacy- group leaders in Jakarta, Indonesia, while they were observing protest actions both at the presidential palace and at the Ministry of Agriculture.

THE World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday urged governments to prioritize the effects of global warming in their health agenda as it warned that climate change may reverse whatever gains were achieved in fighting diseases due to poverty.

THE possibility of a presidential pardon for the nine military officers who were convicted on a coup case by the Regional Trial Court in Makati Tuesday is not remote especially if Malacañang considers the admission of their wrongdoing, the Armed Forces chief of staff said Wednesday.

HAD President Arroyo followed the propoor programs of former President Joseph Estrada, the country would not experience a rice crisis, San Juan Mayor Joseph Victor Ejercito said Wednesday.

Malacañang is resorting to another diversionary scheme to distract public attention from the increasing list of uncovered administration anomalies with President Arroyo herself insisting on Wednesday that “Senate investigations would not bring rice to the table” of hungry Filipinos.