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Asia to ‘bear brunt of warming-linked deaths’

More than half the annual estimated 150,000 deaths linked to climate change will come from the Asia-Pacific region, reports cited officials at the World Health Organisation as saying on Monday.

Most of the fatalities, the report said, will be the result of a greater incidence of diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea and malnutrition, as well as and flooding due to changing weather patterns.

Shigeru Omi, WHO director for the western Pacific region, cited evidence that malaria was now appearing in areas such as the highlands
of Papua New Guinea, which were once considered too cold for mosquitoes that spread the disease.

Global warming might cause fewer deaths from cold and freezing, WHO regional adviser Hisashi Ogawa reportedly said, but this would easily be offset by the greater mortality due to other reasons.

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