Health in the Developing World

Delhi 1996. This photo could be from one of many developing countries where urban life exposes each person to a cocktail of health hazards. In such deprived urban areas there is lack of water, drainage, sanitation and refrigerators. These are combining with climate change to increase the risks of diarrhoeal diseases. Air pollution is severe from cooking stoves and traffic.  All these problems are compounded by increasing urbanisation  and overpopulation in poor countries. These urban areas are also the milieu for viral transmission to humans from animals and fowl that are kept in close proximity.

In much of Asia, many of the countries suffering these problems have two further dangers from climate change. The glaciers of the Himalayas are melting rapidly and soon there will be no seasonal flows to the great rivers that sustain millions. With sea level rise many low lying areas, many of them urbanised, will have to be evacuated

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