South East Asia consists of 11 countries and is home to approximately 600 million people. The exact number is not clear since there are different ideas about what countries belong officially to the region. On this blog we focus on the countries that are fixed by the World Health Organization. These countries are the following: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Maldives, Myanmar and Nepal.
The environment continues to be an important contributing factor to disease and mortality in the developing world, including countries in Southeast Asia. The region accounts for up to a quarter of all deaths caused by changes in the environment. One of these environmental issues is the condition of the atmosphere. In global health, Southeast Asia is one of the biggest players when it comes to air pollution. Kuching (Malaysia), Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Singapore topped the list of major cities with the highest air pollution levels in the world according to Air Visual, a platform that measures the Air Quality Index, or AQI, worldwide. This affects the health of the residents in these countries.
India is one of the countries where air pollution is the cause of million deaths in 2017. Last week news reports showed the situation in India, where people had to move out of New Delhi because smog was becoming hazardous for their health. This can lead to respiratory diseases, and people who are already suffering from asthma for instance, get affected even more. For this blog we will mostly focus on India, along with other countries in South East Asia to use as comparison.
Check out our newest blogs!
-
TB & COPD: a Destructive Double Burden
As already mentioned in the previous blog, air pollution and it’s risk for respiratory diseases is very urgent. Suspended particulate matter can eventually lead to respiratory illnesses. Two of those we will describe in more detail here, since it forms a double burden as well. The first is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is… Lees verder
-
Respiratory Disease and COPD
As discussed in previous blogs, air pollution can lead to an increase in tuberculosis incidence, or can be a main contributor to lung cancer. Moreover, air pollution also has a large effect on respiratory diseases. Respiratory diseases are largely responsible for a significant burden from healthcare costs, premature mortality, lost productivity, significant disability and social… Lees verder
-
Crop Burning In India
Respiratory infections are the most common chronic disease of children globally, are a leading cause of death in developing countries and make a large contribution to the overall burden of disease as measured by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost. The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is a measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number… Lees verder
-
Tuberculosis Is In The Air
In this blogpost we would like to adress another disease that occurs in high numbers in Souteasth Asia; Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis (hereafter TB) affects nearly three million people in the Southeast Asia Region every year. Of this number, nearly one million are not detected or are not treated well. The knowledge about the condition of air… Lees verder
-
Effect Of Pollution On Cancer In India
In the last two blog posts the concerns that are present in India due to pollution were vividly discussed. There is no doubt that this urgency is something very relevant and needs to be fixed. An indirect consequence of this is a loss of GDP. In 2013, India has lost over 8.5 percent due to… Lees verder
-
The Battle For Highest Pollution: Urban Versus Rural
India is part of Southeast-Asia and the seventh-largest country by area. The number of inhabitants has increased drastically from 361 million in 1951 to more than 1.3 billion people nowadays. Pakistan, Nepal, China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh are neighbouring countries. India has a fast-growing economy and an expanding middle class. And although it has reduced… Lees verder
-
New Delhi: The Most Polluted City In The World
India accounts for 22 of the world’s 30 cities with the worst air pollution, 7 of them are in the top 10 which makes India the most polluted country in the world. According to a new study, globally air pollution will cause around 7 million premature deaths in 2020. Greenpeace Southeast Asia concluded that next… Lees verder
Mijn blog volgen
Krijg nieuwe content direct in je mailbox.
South East Asia 
Good start to introducing the issues – looking forward to hearing about some specifics about different ares and cities – and how they are trying to deal with it. How is the air pollution situation being monitored, for example?
LikeLike