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The World Health Organization’s Copenhagen pitch on climate change

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As talks came to an end in Copenhagen, the World Health Organization tried to explain that climate change is about more than the environment -- it’s a human health concern too.

As WHO scientist Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum said on the News Hour on Thursday, ‘Three and a half million die from under-nutrition. That’s entirely dependent on agricultural production. And all of those deaths occur in the parts of the world that are going to be most affected by climate change.’

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Malaria is another heat-sensitive global health threat, which is expected to worsen with changing weather patterns. But, on the bright side, the World Health Organization reported this week that malaria-fighting funds, which went from $300 million in 2003 to $1.7 billion this year, are paying off. In a third of the 108 ‘malarious’ countries, reports of sickness dropped by more than half since 2000.

And the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation just awarded researchers nearly $10 million to create a malaria vaccine.

However, in case you’re visiting a ‘malarious’ country any time soon, here’s some tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on keeping clear of the mosquito-borne bug.

-- Amina Khan

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