International Journal of Sub-Saharan African Research (IJSSAR)

Background: Globally, there are studies establishing correlations between health challenges/diseases outbreak and climate change. World Health Organization (WHO, 2014) predicted that the impact of climate change variables could result to about 250,000 deaths per year between 2030 and 2050. WHO, (2014) further explained that such death will arise from conditions like heat stress, malnutrition, diarrhea, and malaria. This implies that climate change has an environmental effect as well as health implications on hundreds and thousands of lives all over the world. This call for global concern, most especially in developing countries where the standard of living is very poor as a result of socio-economic challenges which is exposing the inhabitants to high climate hazards.
Objective: This study investigated the effects of climate change on human health especially the extent at which life endangering disease outbreak are caused by climate change components.
Methodology: The study focusses on the south-eastern region of Nigeria and employed longitudinal design approach. The data were collected from health sectors and climate related agency that document data and applied ordinary least square method to assess the impact of climate variable on the health of the selected inhabitance of the study population.
Result: The study found that there is specific effect of climate change on people’s health in the region and that there are determinant factors pointing to climate change as a cause of life-threatening disease outbreaks in Nigeria’s environment, particularly in the country’s south-eastern region.
Conclusion: Climate change poses significant health risks to rural communities in South Eastern Nigeria. The incidence of vector-borne infections may rise, illnesses brought on by the heat, crop failure-related hunger, and mental health problems resulting from displacement and unstable economic conditions may be some of the main effects of climate change.
Unique contribution: As a result, this study has given value to Nigeria’s climatic data, which adaptation strategic policy-makers can use to propose solutions to the region’s climate impacts. Beyond environmental studies, this research effort has provided sufficient knowledge on people health occasioned by climate change effect.
Key Recommendations: The study among others recommended that there should be serious sensitization on climate change effects in the region to enable the general public take up adaptable strategies to ameliorate its health implications on the people. That stakeholders to put to bare the causes of the disease outbreak and itemized way forward (adaptive strategy) that can ensure safety of lives in the region.