KATHMANDU, Nov 30: Nepali authorities should urgently bolster public health systems that struggled during a dengue fever outbreak in recent months, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. Dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases are projected to become more widespread and severe in Nepal as a result of warming temperatures linked to climate change.
As of November 20, 2022, there had been over 52,557 reported cases of dengue in Nepal since the beginning of the year, and 60 deaths attributed to the disease, according to government statistics. There have also been large outbreaks in neighboring India. Dengue is a mosquito-borne virus that can cause a range of symptoms. In critical cases, people with dengue might require hospitalization and urgent platelet transfusion. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s leading authority on climate science, “There is high confidence that climate change has driven the expansion of vector-borne diseases that infect humans at high elevations in Nepal.”
“As temperatures are rising, the federal government and local governments need to work together to protect people from the growing threat posed by outbreaks of disease,” a statement issued by the HRW quoted Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, as saying. “The governments of countries that have been most responsible for the emissions that are driving climate change should support Nepal’s efforts, including access to vaccines.”
Dealing with dengue
Wealthy countries, whose greenhouse gas emissions are mainly responsible for climate change, should live up to their climate finance commitments and do more to support Nepal in responding to climate-based disasters, Human Rights Watch said.
According to the climate change panel, temperatures in the Himalayan region have increased faster than average global rates, and are projected to continue to rise faster than the global average. The panel also warned that “viruses like dengue, chikungunya, and Japanese encephalitis are emerging in Nepal in hill and mountainous areas.”
When people who have been infected with dengue are infected for the second time with a different variant, severe symptoms can develop, leading specialists to believe that Nepal is vulnerable to even more serious outbreaks in the near future. Doctors also fear that the Zika virus, which can cause infants to be born with microcephaly, could be spread in Nepal in the near future by the same mosquitos.
Nepal has had annual dengue outbreaks since 2006. The previous largest outbreak was in 2019, with almost 18,000 recorded cases. The 2022 outbreak, almost three times as large, also recorded cases over a longer season. Whereas in previous years dengue cases were found at lower altitudes, in 2022 dengue has spread to at least 76 of Nepal’s 77 districts, including high altitude regions.
“This is related to climate change, because the rate of warming is much greater at higher altitudes,” said Dr Megnath Dhimal, a government public health expert and contributor to the IPCC report. “We need to enhance our infrastructure and capacity for future outbreaks. The most [climate]-vulnerable countries are developing countries like Nepal.”
