Health Adaptation Scenario and Dengue Fever Vulnerability Assessment in Indonesia

Abstract

Climate change is a serious challenge we are currently facing, as the impacts have already been occurring. Indonesia’s geographic and geological characteristics are also easily affected by climate change, natural disasters (earthquakes and tsunamis), and extreme weather (long drought and floods). Its urban areas also have high pollution levels. Much evidence can be seen, ranging from an increase in global temperature, variable season changes, extremely long droughts, high incidences of forest fires, and crop failures. This paper describes some evidences of climate change in Indonesia to weather disasters such as floods, landslides, and drought, burden of vector-borne diseases, air pollution from transportation and forest fires, and reemerging and newly emerging diseases. An evidence of health related to climate is based on a vulnerability assessment for dengue fever. To respond to its negative impacts to human, the health adaptation strategy and efforts undertaken in Indonesia nowadays include the following: to increase awareness of health consequences of climate change, to strengthen the capacity of health systems to provide protection from climate-related risks and substantially reduce health system’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and to ensure that health concerns are addressed in decisions to reduce risks from climate change in other key sectors.