The health department is piloting a scheme to alert pregnant women and mothers of infants of dangerously high temperatures, combining data from the SA Weather Service with its MomConnect app.
MomConnect is being used by more than 422,500 women who receive targeted SMS and WhatsApp messages based on the developmental stage of their foetus or young child.
The adverse health effects caused by climate change are expected to intensify as global temperatures rise, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As a result, SA was set to see more frequent floods, heat stress, water stress and wildfires, Elizabeth Leonard of the Clinton Health Access Initiative told delegates to the annual Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) conference on Tuesday.
Climate change posed specific risks for pregnant women and infants who were particularly vulnerable to extreme temperatures, she said. High temperatures raised the risk of miscarriage, preterm birth and low birth weight babies and increased the risks of dehydration and heat stroke in newborns. Climate change also raised the risk of increased vector-borne diseases such as malaria, which present increased risks to pregnant women.
The Clinton Health Access Initiative has provided funding to develop the software interface for the smart climate health early warning system piloted in two health districts in Limpopo. The impact of the pilot has yet to be evaluated, but discussions are already under way to expand the scheme to other provinces. The Clinton Health Access Initiative has provided $3m for the five-year project.
The SA Weather Service provides data on extreme temperatures, relative humidity, air quality, rainfall and wind speed, which is combined with MomConnect data on each user’s location and the stage of their pregnancy or baby’s age. Users receive customised alerts about weather warnings, how to adapt to extreme temperatures and when to go to a health facility.
“We anticipate our intervention will mitigate the health impact of climate change on pregnant women, as it has the potential to avert preterm birth, miscarriage and other climate-induced complications,” said Leonard.
Leonard said 95% of government clinics had registered women on MomConnect, who reported very high satisfaction rates. A total of 98.6% of registered mothers said they would recommend the app to friends and family.
Alexforbes head of sustainability Lee Swan said there was increasing global interest in climate change and health, and last year’s conference of the parties on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change had seen the highest number of delegates who were health professionals to date.
The World Bank estimated 132-million more people might be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030 due to climate change, of which 44-million would be driven by health impacts, she said.
“Healthcare might not be a big driver (of climate change), but much of the impact of climate change will play out in this sector,” she said.
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