Appel à un plan canicule

Call for a heatwave plan

HEAT WAVES Climate change

Following the latest heat waves in the country, the professor of infectious diseases, Lyès Akhamokh, launched yesterday during his intervention on the airwaves of Channel III of the National Radio, an appeal to establish a “Heatwave Plan in Algeria”.
Informing in this context that “among the ten hottest cities in the world, nine are Algerian”, the speaker indicated that this climatic upheaval immediately generates “the multiplication of heat waves and periods of heat waves which extend over time with a deadly effect on vulnerable people (the elderly, children and the chronically ill), as in France where there have been 15,000 deaths in recent years”.
Now “we no longer talk about climate change but about climate upheaval,” he explained, stressing that it is no longer just about heat waves but also “the phenomenon of floods with their serious repercussions on health.”
Making the link between climate change and phenology, infectiologist Akhamokh says he fears “the change in behavior of the life cycle of plant and animal species with an increase in the number of emergence of harmful organisms that are vectors of transmissible diseases, such as the tiger mosquito, native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, which has established itself well on the Mediterranean coast including the Algerian coasts and has gradually adapted there.”
The professor recalled that the tiger mosquito, currently present in 100 countries on five continents, is “a harmful insect that carries deadly diseases such as Dengue, Zika and yellow fever. Its variant, Culex, has even adapted in cold countries such as Liechtenstein and Iceland, where 31 cases were detected among natives in 2023.”
In this case, for him, prevention is essential. “The Special Weather Bulletins (BMS) must be followed with greater attention in order to establish heatwave plans in Algeria,” he warns, advising that “the waves of sub-Saharan migration are not caused by insecurity or political crises.”
“Beyond migration due to political and security phenomena, there is climate migration due to drought, the scarcity of drinking water, food security. Natural phenomena closely linked to the climate,” the expert stressed, adding that there are also what are called “climate refugees.”
“The WHO, he notes, counts more than 500 million climate refugees across the world. And Algeria, which is a host country, is suffering from this phenomenon with its serious repercussions such as the re-emergence of malaria, eradicated in Algeria, which is coming back at a gallop, with these migratory flows,” regrets the speaker. And to suggest “the need to increase vaccination campaigns.”
Manel Z.