Climate change becomes more evident with the increasing frequency of extreme weather events with Africa being one of the most affected continents. 

Extreme weather events refers to weather phenomena that are at the extremes of the historical distribution and are rare for a particular place and/or time, especially severe or unseasonal weather for example floods, heatwaves and droughts.

These occurrences can have adverse effects on health as described below.

Extreme weather events trigger food insecurity. Floods destroy food plantations and storage infrastructure. Droughts cause water scarcity for both human beings and animals which further results in reduced yields in both crop and livestock production. The droughts also cause increased incidence of pests as seen in the 2020 Locust plagues in the Horn of Africa.

All these result in food scarcity which leads to starvation and malnutrition diseases such as kwashiorkor as evidenced in the current famine in the Karamoja Region in Uganda.

Furthermore, heat waves cause damage to hospital equipment and poor storage of medicine which affects potency of the medicine.The high temperatures also lower comfort, efficiency and occupational health of hospital staff. ( Carmichael et al., 2012) Floods destroy hospital infrastructure and supplies.

Extreme weather events also increase incidence of disease for example heatwaves increase risk of heat related morbidity and mortality and increase incidence of respiratory diseases. Floods increase spread of waterborne and vector-borne diseases such as cholera and malaria respectively, through providing a favourable environment for pathogens and hindering access to urgent medical care to suppress spread of the infectious disease, which leads to a wider spread. (Okaka & Odhiambo, 2018)

References

The Health Impact Of Extreme Weather Events In Sub-Saharan Africa

Limin Wang, Shireen Kanji, Sushenjit Bandyopadhyay

https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-4979

Fredrick Okoth Okaka and Beneah D. O. Odhiambo

Relationship between Flooding and Outbreak of Infectious Diseasesin Kenya: A Review of the Literature

doi:10.1155/2018/5452938