气候变化, fake news top global health concerns

气候变化and fake news pose the biggest threat to human健康over the next 25 years, according to a survey of health practitioners around the world.

The global study found that the overwhelming majority (98 per cent) of healthcare professionals want to see more cooperation to tackle health challenges created by the climate crisis.

The气候crisis was perceived to go hand in hand with increased migration due to globalisation, and 72 per cent of respondents said that this led to more drug resistance.

“The very crux of the ‘post-truth’ digital wildfire era is that it places the onus to verify stories on the reader, who could be a person without the time, energy or resources to do so,”

Tamar Ghosh, chief executive, CEO, Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

The study, undertaken by the United Kingdom’s Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (RSTMH), surveyed doctors, researchers and other health professionals in 79 countries.

The resulting report,published on 17 September，发现患者的错误信息和抗科学观点的增长加剧了对医疗保健条款的威胁，尤其是在低收入国家。

A total of 91 per cent of respondents to the survey saidgovernmentsand health bodies are not doing enough to prepare for the impact of climate change on health. A similar number —92 per cent — said this challenge was coupled with pressures placed on health practitioners by fake news, which, they said, created distrust in expertise and evidence.

Tamar Ghosh, chief executive of the RSTMH, says such trends could be countered by better communications training for researchers and health professionals, especially in poorer countries, where people with less access to technology might lack the digital know-how to distinguish between reputable and fake news.

“Low- and middle-income countries will need to counter this threat, as the very crux of the ‘post-truth’ digital wildfire era is that it places the onus to verify stories on the reader, who could be a person without the time, energy or resources to do so,” she toldSciDev.Net。

Anit Mukherjee, a policy fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC, believes that governments, NGOs and international health bodies need to get better at using the same information channels patients rely on, including social media.

他说：“这不再是高速公路旁边的海报。”“人们信任的人需要进来并使用相同的信息和传播渠道，并用良好的信息轰炸他们，这可以取代错误的信息。”

Despite concerns over fake news, the more than 600 respondents to the survey felt positive about technology, with 95 per cent of men and 83 per cent of women reporting a belief that technology will improve global healthcare provision.

但是，约有68％的医疗保健专业人员说technologyhad increased the healthcare divide between rich and poor countries as it causes brain drain. Around three in four African and two in three Asian physicians said they worried about local doctors moving to richer countries, compared to just half of their colleagues in Europe.

“Technology is inevitable and should be used,” said Mukherjee. “But it will only work if you have proper basic healthcare mechanisms in place, and design technology in support of that.”

Respondents from around the world were asked about the top three specific health challenges they were expecting to face over the next 25 years. Non-communicablediseases例如糖尿病和癌症是最大的问题，其次是耐药病毒和寄生虫菌株，以及新兴的传染病，例如埃博拉病毒。

Meanwhile many respondents were confident that conditions such as polio, guinea-worm and blinding trachoma could be eradicated within the next quarter of a century.

也许令人惊讶的是,医疗保健专业人士the territories most affected by climate change andconflictwere the most upbeat about meeting those challenges. Around 63 per cent of African physicians said they felt generally optimistic about the future of healthcare, compared to just 42 per cent of those working in Europe.

The RSTMH issued five recommendations for global健康根据该报告的发现：解决气候危机，关于非传染性疾病的更多合作，打击健康不平等，优先考虑生活质量而不是延长寿命，并确保卫生专业人员可以使用最新技术。

To achieve the latter, private and public sectors must work in partnership on research and innovation, says Ghosh. To ensure new technologies truly benefit healthcare workers, businesses should be “working in collaboration with health professionals from the outset, rather than seeing them as an end audience for the use of the technology,” she added.