Health project launched

National health authorities have teamed up with their international counterparts to launch a project aimed at helping China mitigate the health effects of climate change.

The global project, launched to coincide with World Health Day yesterday, includes efforts to strengthen surveillance and control of infectious diseases, ensure safer use of diminishing water supplies and coordinate responses to emergencies, according to the website of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The $1.5-million project jointly organized by the WHO and the Ministry of Health (MOH) comes at a time when the effects of extreme weather, such as floods and heat waves, and their indirect consequences, such as infections transmitted by water and food, have been taking their toll on the people of China, Hans Troedsson, WHO representative to China, said.