Climate Change Expands Spread of Tropical Diseases, Says IDAI

The Central Board of the Indonesian Paediatric Society (IDAI) has cautioned that climate change is expanding the spread of tropical diseases into regions previously free from such risks due to rising global temperatures. Dr. Riyadi, a member of IDAI’s Environmental Health and Climate Change Task Force, stated that global warming is causing tropical climate zones to broaden, allowing disease-carrying vectors like mosquitoes to live and breed in areas that were once too cold. “Regions that used to be cold are now experiencing higher temperatures. Because of this temperature shift, areas that previously had no record of dengue fever are now seeing cases emerge,” Riyadi said during an IDAI media seminar commemorating World Environment Day on Tuesday. He noted that this phenomenon has already been observed in several countries that previously had no dengue cases because temperatures were too low for the carrier mosquitoes to survive. Beyond rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns are also contributing to an elevated risk of tropical diseases. High rainfall can create more stagnant water pools, which serve as breeding sites for the mosquitoes that cause dengue fever. He assessed that this situation poses a challenge to health systems, as disease distribution patterns continue to shift in tandem with environmental changes. IDAI also encourages the public to increase environmental awareness through simple steps such as reducing plastic use, conserving energy, maintaining environmental cleanliness, and supporting the use of more eco-friendly transport to curb the impact of climate change on health.