The threat that climate change poses to global health is the theme of an annual conference being held by New Zealand’s Otago Global Health in Wellington, New Zealand this week 6 – 7 November.  Pacific research will be the focus of the conference and will host speakers include Dr Colin Tukuitonga, the Director-General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC).

Elected Director-General in 2014, Dr Tukuitonga – who hails from Niue – maintains that the two greatest threats to health in the Pacific are non-communicable diseases and climate change. He has consistently stressed the urgency to address the problems of climate change. Dr Tukuitonga became the first SPC representative to address the UN General Assembly in 2015 and participated in facilitating the SAMOA Pathway (SIDs Accelerated Modalities of Action) in 2014 -- a framework signed by small island states to affirm the challenges of climate change, development and sustainability.

Other speakers include Interim National Director Cancer Control and Otago University Professor Diana Sarfati and Geography Professor Jo Sharp from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

Professor Diana Sarfati will discuss the growing burden that cancer poses for Pacific Island nations as the region struggles with inadequate cancer surveillance, geographically isolated small populations, vulnerable ecological and economic situations, insufficient resources, poor access to screening and treatment, and overburdened health-care systems.

Professor Jo Sharp will discuss the transmission of disease from animals to humans. She is currently leading research on zoonotic disease transmission in Tanzania, East Africa, where bacterial infections with pathogens such as Leptospira, Coxiella and Brucella account for 11 times more hospital admissions for fever than malaria.