Because of rapidly increasing temperatures, heat-related deaths of vulnerable people, especially those aged over 65, has increased by 148 percent in Bangladesh in just two decades.

The Lancet, one of the world's leading medical journals, revealed this during the Bangladesh launch of 2022 Global Report of the Lancet Countdown.

The researchers compared the heat-related mortality rates between 2000-2004 and 2017-2021.

Compared to the 1986-2005 baseline, summer temperature increased 0.49C in 2021, which was significantly higher than the 0.09C increase in 2000.

Bangladesh experienced 1.7 months of drought from 2012-2021, considerably higher than the 1951-1960 average of only 0.3 months, said the report.

The temperature rise is affecting the spread of infectious diseases, putting populations at higher risk of emerging diseases and co-epidemics.

"Such exposure to extremes of heat results in a range of health consequences, including heat stress and heat stroke, worsening heart disease, and acute kidney injury and leads to an increase in all-cause mortality," said Shouro Dasgupta, the only Bangladeshi who co-authored the report.

Climate change will likely increase the frequency of vector borne diseases like Dengue and Malaria in the future, he said while highlighting the Bangladesh-specific findings of the report yesterday at a discussion at the Child Health Research Foundation in the capital.

Launched globally on October 26 this year, the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change was produced by 99 experts from around the world.

Billions of hours of farm work have been lost during high temperatures and global warming has damaged the ability to grow crops, said Prof Elizabeth Robinson, working group 1 lead of The Lancet Countdown, while presenting the global highlights.

In Bangladesh last year, 15,970 million potential work hours were lost in agriculture, 3,300 million in construction, and 2,400 million in manufacturing sectors, according to the report.

"Climate change is threatening people's health in Bangladesh. It is no longer a problem of the future; it is happening now and causing losses and damages every day," said Saber Hossain Chowdhury, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change.

The rise in temperature will cause a major crisis of freshwater, he added.

The health issues should be on the climate agenda, he said.

Prof Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, said, "We have already entered the era of loss and damage due to climate change. We need to find solutions, and multi-disciplinary collaboration is important."

Professor Emeritus Ainun Nishat said the issue of salinity across the coastal region has been missing in the Lancet countdown.

"Salinity has badly affected the health of the coastal people. The coastal region is the most vulnerable to climate change impacts… and in 30 years, Gopalganj, Madaripur, Shariatpur, Faridpur, Barishal and Jhalakathi will be the most vulnerable districts," he said.