WHO Sets Sights on Global Warming as Health Issue (1/2)

Dr. Timothy Pyakalyia says farmers in his tropical" class="hjdict" word="tropical" target=_blank>tropical homeland, Papua New Guinea, have been enjoying fruit harvests at elevations where fruit never grew before.

Along with that good news, Dr. Pyakalyia - who is also PNG's Deputy Secretary of Health - says there is some bad news.

"We're seeing local malaria" class="hjdict" word="malaria" target=_blank>malariatransmission in zones we've never seen before."

Dr. Pyakalyia spent the past week here in Jeju with dozens of other Western Pacific delegates to the World Health Organization. WHO Spokesman Peter Cordingly says the new malaria cases can be traced to global warming.

"The warm zones are spreading in this region into areas that weren't warm before. And when that happens, you're looking at vector-borne diseases, mosquito-borne diseases... Dengue and malaria are just becoming very, very difficult to control, the numbers are growing, and that's because the numbers of mosquitoes are growing, as well."

Mosquitoes thrive in warm, wet conditions. WHO officials say they have seen dramatically higher incidences of mosquito-borne disease in Singapore, Cambodia, and other countries.

The WHO's Western Pacific regional director, Dr. Shigeru Omi, says global warming is emerging as one of the organization's most urgent issues.