NotesUNCCD Down to Earth Newsletter Number 14 - December 2000
Abstract
The health impacts of desertification can be divided into malnutrition and famine, water borne diseases, other infectious diseases, respiratory diseases and burning injuries.
Desertification and drought affect food production, resulting in malnutrition, hunger, and often famine. Although over the past three decades world food production has increased at a greater rate than has population, hunger persists and is increasing in some countries. According to FAO, “There has been no improvement since the last count: 826 million people still do not get enough to eat in a time of unprecedented plenty”.
In Africa, the number of malnourished people has increased in absolute numbers, and in many countries as a percentage of the population as well. Some 49% of the 10 million annual deaths among children under five years of age in the developing world are associated with malnutrition.
It is apparent that the sub-Saharan meningococcus meningitis belt is enlarging its southern borders. Meningococcal disease is a contagious bacterial illness with very high fatality rates, and is spread by personto- person contact through the respiratory droplets of infected people. The highest number of cases occurs in sub-Saharan Africa in an area referred to as the meningitis belt. Epidemics occur in seasonal cycles between the end of November and June, depending on the location and the climate of the area, and then decline very rapidly with the arrival of the first rain.