El Nino poses significant health threat, WHO warns

El Nino poses a significant threat to global health as the world braces for a cycle forecast to be the most intense on record, United Nations and World Health Organization officials warned Tuesday.

The natural weather pattern is tied to warming surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean and is linked to higher temperatures, extreme drought and widespread flooding. Its effects are already being felt from Central America to Indonesia.

The WHO said heavy rain could create favourable conditions for cholera and disease-carrying insects, especially mosquitoes, raising the risk of illnesses such as malaria, chikungunya and dengue fever.

Teresa Zakaria, the WHO's unit head for risk reduction, humanitarian operations and climate change, called El Nino “a significant public health threat” and a “risk multiplier”. She said the most severe impacts would be felt where climate shocks overlap with weak health systems, limited access to healthcare, food insecurity, displacement and humanitarian crises.

“We have a window of opportunity to act now, before these risks become a crisis,” Zakaria told reporters in Geneva.

Earlier in September, the World Meteorological Organization warned that the current El Nino is forecast to be the strongest since comparable records began four decades ago, with climate effects continuing well into 2027.

Scientists do not say El Nino is caused by climate change, but expect it to add heat to a planet already warming from humanity's burning of fossil fuels and to intensify weather extremes.