Kazhastan > Impacts by Sector > Health
COUNTRY PROFILE
Kazakhstan
Explore the overview for a general context of how vulnerable and resilient Kazakhstan is to climate change. Explore climate impact and vulnerability by sector. View the results of the Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment for Kazakhstan. Explore the various options for climate adaptation in key sectors.
Health
The human health sector has clear links to climate variability through both direct exposure as well as indirect pathways. Obviously, negative health impacts come from extreme climate events, such as heat waves, hurricanes/storms, floods and droughts. Gradual changes of climate affecting water, food and air quality also have negative influence on human health around the world. Beyond the physical effects are issues related to mental health. Research has shown that increased numbers of extreme events can leave significant fractions of the population with PTSD-like symptoms. Although controversial, studies indicate that there is linkage between rising temperatures and increase in aggression and violence in society.
Some of the most direct inpats that climate change might have on the health sector are listed below:
With every degree in Celsius of temperature increase, the call into hospitals increase by approximately 2.5%. This means that the Government of Kazakhstan will need to allocate additional budget and capacity to support the health sector. The main impacts of increased heat on health conditions include increases to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, as well as a decrease in overall food safety and greater incidence of traffic accidents.
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Extreme precipitation increases the risk of pollution or contamination of drinking water supplies. In addition, the impact of hazards will increase.
Drought adds additional pressure on human health through more dehydration and reduced availability of drinking water.
Sector Vulnerability
The health sector may as result of heat and drought, expect an increase of call into hospitals all over the country, but especially in the southern and western provinces. Also, the emergency capacity will be impacted.