Health authorities examine how to improve patient care amid climate changes

Children in Guyana’s hinterland communities are increasingly vulnerable to waterborne illness as climate change disrupts water supply during the dry season, prompting the development of a national plan to build resilience.

Nayan Persaud, the Director of Climate Change and Environmental Health at the Ministry of Health, said change in weather patterns is seriously affecting children’s immune systems.

“Children are more susceptible to contracting certain diseases, their immune system isn’t as strong as ours,” Persaud said.

He said that exposure to dirty or murky water can lead to leptospirosis or gastrointestinal illness and the issues are particularly in communities where water sources are compromised. The risk is most acute in hinterland areas that depend on wells. He explained also that during the dry season, well water levels drop, leaving behind water that is sedimented and often unsafe for use.

Droughts and shifting rainfall patterns linked to climate change are accelerating the problem, concentrating impurities in what water remains.

“Diarrheal diseases are contracted,” he said.

So what is the national resolve?

Beyond awareness campaigns to help hinterland residents access water purification support and education, a National Adaptation Plan for the health sector is underway.

According to Persaud this plan is still under development and will guide health centres on building climate resilience and identify what the sector needs to adapt long-term.

Once finalised, the plan will give clinicians a formal framework for integrating climate considerations into patient care, said.

“Clinicians have a large role to play…climate change is everybody’s business, so everybody plays an integral role when it comes to adaptation,” Persaud said.

The plan will be public but it will mostly guide the health sector with navigating the result of climate change as weather patterns continue to shift.