PAN AMERICAN HEALTH ORGANIZATION
Regional Office for the Americas of
the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
Celebrating 95 years: 1902-1997 - Protecting Americas' Health
For further information contact:Daniel Epstein , (202) 974-3459 Office of Public Information, PAHO
Washington, DC, September 26, 1997 -- The Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization today urged countries to update contingency plans to respond to health problems that might arise as a result of the "El Niño" current.
The Council, made up of ministers of health from all the countries in the Americas, said it was "concerned that the new manifestation of El Niño might be even worse than" 1982 and 1983, when it had "grave consequences for health and the economy."
The ministers suggested that countries
in the Americas "strengthen and integrate their systems for early
warning, epidemiological surveillance, and the control of communicable
diseases, particularly water-borne and vector-borne diseases, and disseminate
this information freely through the Internet and other modern means of
communication."
PAHO which works with all the countries of the Americas to improve the
health and raise living standards of their peoples, already has a mandate
to provide technical cooperation for health emergency preparedness programs
to deal with disasters and assess health needs in emergencies.
The El Niño/Southern Oscillation phenomenon is an atmosphere-ocean coupling across the central tropical Pacific which influences climate in many regions of Earth. Much of the American continent is influenced to some extent by the phenomenon. Semi-arid and arid ecosystems are strongly connected to the phenomenon during fall, winter, and spring when regional climate derives predominantly from the Pacific Ocean. The timing and amount of precipitation is a fundamental agent structuring the biological communities, and affecting communicable diseases transmitted by water and by vectors such as insects and rodents. Semi-arid regions worldwide are commonly areas where variance in precipitation is high, with runs of drought and unusually heavy rains being commonplace. The El Niño phenomenon is a major cause for the variability of rainfall in many semi-arid regions.