Nearly 200 policy makers and scientists from Asia and Europe attended a workshop in Hanoi on November 4 to share their experiences in coping with climate change and emerging diseases.

Vietnam ’s Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu opened the workshop with a pledge to address the consequences of climate change as well as promote international cooperation to control epidemics.

Experts discussed technical solutions that would help locate areas vulnerable to climate change and the need to establish information systems to detect any changes as soon as possible plus an early warning system for transmitted diseases that could lead to epidemics such as SARS, A/H1N1 flu and acute diarrhoea.

They also recommended models where the community takes the initiative in coping with climate change and information campaigns to raise public awareness and change the habits of both the authorities and ordinary people in order to mitigate the harmful impacts of climate change to the health of local communities.

Dr Nguyen Huy Nga, Head of the Vietnam Department for Preventive Medicine, said that climate changes affect people’s health, especially the poor.

He repeated international warnings that Vietnam is among the five countries in the world to be the hardest hit by climate changes and rising sea levels, particularly the Red River and Mekong Deltas areas.

He reminded those attending the conference that climate changes are responsible for 2.4 percent of all acute diarrhoea cases in the world and 6 percent of all malaria cases in low-income countries and went on to explain the need to convene this workshop for members of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

The event was co-sponsored by Hungary./.