Comparing Viet Nam's national climate strategy's effectiveness in mitigating infectious diseases against other OECD countries in South-East Asia

Abstract

Climate change is the greatest threat to human health; however, climate change is also impacting the spread of infectious diseases causing contemporaneous burdens on health systems worldwide. The aim of this research was to assess whether Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) South-East Asia (SEA) countries national climate strategies were effective in mitigating infectious diseases impacted by climate change, using Viet Nam as a key case study. To conduct benchmarking between OECD SEA countries, data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the Climate Watch, and copies of each countries' climate strategy were analysed using a SMART analysis. Further analysis was done with IHME data to benchmark the prevalence infectious disease group per 100,000 by country and income group, and health expenditure per capita by infectious disease incidence per 100,000 and DALY per 100,000 across OECD SEA countries. This research found that Viet Nam is doing relatively well in addressing infectious diseases through climate change policy mitigation efforts, both individually and in comparison, to OECD SEA countries. Viet Nam was found to have the highest prevalence of respiratory diseases and tuberculosis in comparison to other OECD SEA countries but is ranked comparatively well when looking at overall infectious disease DALY's and incidence rates compared to OECD SEA neighbours. Viet Nam's climate strategy clarifies the need to develop the healthcare network and infrastructure required to effectively manage epidemics. Increased health expenditure per capita and greater implementation of One Health frameworks in government strategies are recommended to improve Viet Nam's ability to mitigate climate susceptible infectious diseases.

Fig. 1

Prevalence of Infectious Disease Group per 100,000 by country and income group, including SEA average trendlines (2019)^,.

Fig. 2

Health Expenditure per capita by Infectious Disease Incidence per 100,000 and DALY per 100,000^–.