UI Professor Reminds Government And Society To Anticipate Health Dangers Due To El Nino

Professor of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama, reminded the government and the public to anticipate the potential health hazards caused by El Nino, which is predicted to occur in August 2023.

He referred to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) to predict that the peak of the El Nino phenomenon in Indonesia will occur from August to September 2023.

"Because we are approaching the end of July 2023. So it will start in a few days," he said, quoted from Antara, Saturday, July 22.

Director of Postgraduates at YARSI University said the World Health Organization (WHO) said there were at least 10 impacts of El Nino on health, one of which was disturbances in food shortages to malnutrition that occurred due to disruption of food security (food security).

Furthermore, the increase in infectious disease events that occurs due to a combination of decreased sanitation hygiene, changes in the lifestyle of disease transmission, and others.

Next, he said, the increase in water-related diseases or "water bore disease" was due to the limited availability of water and sanitation.

Another impact, he explained, was the decrease in public access to health facilities and disruption of health services, either due to hot weather or perhaps natural disasters that occurred during the El Nino era.

Then, he said, an increase in lung disease and respiratory tracts related to the occurrence of air pollution and disease due to hot weather or "heat stress".

On the other hand, El Nino can have an impact on psychosocial, mental, and increase in vector infectious diseases due to changes in vector lifestyles such as mosquitoes, mice, and others with all their impacts.

In addition, continued Tjandra, who once served as Director of Infectious Diseases of WHO Southeast Asia, the El Nino phenomenon could have an impact on natural disasters that could cause people to flee with various consequences as well as injury and even death due to extreme weather and disasters that occurred.