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Climate Change and Health Care Vulnerability in South East Asia: A Review

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Climate Vulnerability and Resilience in the Global South

Part of the book series: Climate Change Management ((CCM))

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Abstract

Climate change is no more just as an environmental issue but is a rising threat for human health. South East Asia region, home to nearly two billion people, is prone to natural disasters, disease outbreaks and health risks of climate change. This study explores vulnerability of SEA region relating to extreme weather events, existing public health infrastructures and maternal and child mortality. Data for this study was collected from WHO data respiratory, World Bank data archive, Germanwatch and Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative. As exploratory study, summary statistics, and both cross sectional and time series plots are used. It is evident that countries in this region are highly exposed to extreme weather events with low adaptive capacity and thus are more vulnerable to climate change than countries in other regions. The regional universal health coverage index is considerably lower than the global average. Everyday a certain proportion of the population becomes economically vulnerable as pushed below the poverty line to maintain excess household health expenditure due to increasing out-of-pocket spending. We also found that there is a lack of antenatal care and skilled birth attendance, maternal and child mortality is in increased proportion. Climate change and health care vulnerability documented in this study would assist the Governments and regional leaders to identify the areas to be improved for readiness to the anticipated climate change.

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Acknowledgements

Authors sincerely acknowledge to University Grand Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh for supporting the corresponding author Md. Sabiruzzaman as a UGC postdoctoral research fellow.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Statistics, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh

    Md. Sabiruzzaman, Md. Golam Hossain & M. Sayedur Rahman

Authors
  1. Md. Sabiruzzaman
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  2. Md. Golam Hossain
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  3. M. Sayedur Rahman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur, Bangladesh

    G. M. Monirul Alam

  2. Sustainable Enterprise Division, Asia Pacific College of Business and Law, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, Australia

    Michael O. Erdiaw-Kwasie

  3. Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Gustavo J. Nagy

  4. Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

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Sabiruzzaman, M., Golam Hossain, M., Sayedur Rahman, M. (2021). Climate Change and Health Care Vulnerability in South East Asia: A Review. In: Alam, G.M.M., Erdiaw-Kwasie, M.O., Nagy, G.J., Leal Filho, W. (eds) Climate Vulnerability and Resilience in the Global South. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77259-8_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77259-8_19

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-77258-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-77259-8

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