Dr Reyad Ho­sein

When talk­ing about cli­mate change, it can feel dis­tant, some­thing about melt­ing ice caps or van­ish­ing glac­i­ers. But here in T&T, it’s much clos­er. It’s the un­bear­able heat in the Sa­van­nah, the floods that sweep through our coun­try. The soar­ing price of toma­toes af­ter a dry sea­son, and the mos­qui­toes breed­ing in every un­cov­ered con­tain­er. These aren’t ran­dom events.

Cli­mate change brings hot­ter tem­per­a­tures, heav­ier bursts of rain­fall, and longer wet sea­sons, all of which cre­ate per­fect breed­ing con­di­tions for Aedes ae­gyp­ti mos­qui­toes, which spread dengue. What was once one bar­rel of stag­nant wa­ter af­ter a show­er has now be­come a city block of flood­ed drains and con­tain­ers alive with lar­vae.

Cli­mate change isn’t on­ly an en­vi­ron­men­tal prob­lem. It’s the great­est health threat of our time – but it is al­so the great­est op­por­tu­ni­ty for in­no­va­tion, and no group is bet­ter placed to seize that op­por­tu­ni­ty than our stu­dents. On Oc­to­ber 15th, World Stu­dents’ Day, let’s help our young peo­ple, many of whom have al­ready recog­nised this threat, to act.

Some of my own ex­pe­ri­ences as a stu­dent led me to act. The Mas­ter of Pub­lic Health pro­gramme at The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine, deep­ened my un­der­stand­ing of pub­lic health, fa­cil­i­tat­ed my practicum place­ment at the Caribbean Pub­lic Health Agency (CARPHA), and guid­ed my re­search project on dengue fever. These ex­pe­ri­ences trans­lat­ed class­room knowl­edge in­to re­al-world im­pact.

A key les­son I car­ried away from this pro­gramme is that knowl­edge with­out ac­tion is in­com­plete; da­ta must lead to change. My project re­port put this to the test by ex­am­in­ing the knowl­edge, at­ti­tudes, and prac­tices con­cern­ing dengue fever in T&T.

Dengue, one of T&T’s most cli­mate-sen­si­tive dis­eases, thrives in hot­ter, wet­ter con­di­tions. When in­tense rain­fall leaves wa­ter stand­ing in drums, drains, and dis­card­ed con­tain­ers, it pro­vides breed­ing grounds for mos­qui­toes. Ris­ing heat in­creas­es virus trans­mis­sion rates, am­pli­fy­ing out­breaks. In 2024 alone, T&T saw more than 1,500 con­firmed cas­es and 19 deaths. My re­search found that while most peo­ple un­der­stood the dan­gers, far few­er con­sis­tent­ly act­ed to re­duce risk.

Dur­ing my practicum with CARPHA, the gap be­tween aware­ness and prac­tice be­came even clear­er. For six weeks, I worked with the Vec­tor-Borne Dis­ease Unit, analysing out­break da­ta, sup­port­ing in­sect sur­veil­lance, and help­ing to de­sign pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion tools. It be­came im­pos­si­ble to ig­nore how en­vi­ron­men­tal shifts from heav­ier rains to ris­ing tem­per­a­tures were re­shap­ing the con­di­tions in which dis­ease spreads, and I con­clud­ed that we must push for knowl­edge to be­come ac­tion.

Dengue is just one symp­tom of a larg­er cri­sis. Flood­wa­ters spread lep­tospiro­sis, dry spells threat­en crops while in­creas­ing food prices and in­tense heat waves push our bod­ies to the edge. As a car­di­ol­o­gist, I know the hu­man body is frag­ile un­der stress. Ris­ing heat in­creas­es de­hy­dra­tion and places added strain on the heart, par­tic­u­lar­ly for the el­der­ly and those liv­ing with chron­ic con­di­tions like hy­per­ten­sion and heart fail­ure. “Just an­oth­er hot day” can tip vul­ner­a­ble pa­tients in­to cri­sis. Even men­tal health suf­fers as fam­i­lies face re­peat­ed storms, floods, and the un­cer­tain­ty that comes with them.

So, how can stu­dents help? Our stu­dents al­ready show the en­er­gy and cre­ativ­i­ty need­ed to make pos­i­tive changes. They can lead school and com­mu­ni­ty clean-ups, plant trees on the com­pound, de­sign apps to track mos­qui­to breed­ing sites, and share pre­ven­tion tips on so­cial me­dia with thou­sands in min­utes. They can de­mand green­er cam­pus­es and cli­mate-smart plan­ning. They aren’t wait­ing to lead to­mor­row; they’re al­ready lead­ing to­day.

But to un­leash their po­ten­tial, we must cre­ate an en­abling en­vi­ron­ment. This means in­te­grat­ing cli­mate and health in­to school cur­ricu­lum, teach­ing them as con­nect­ed re­al­i­ties, sup­port­ing clubs and youth or­gan­i­sa­tions, and pro­vid­ing men­tor­ship that helps ideas grow in­to re­al so­lu­tions. Imag­ine a uni­ver­si­ty stu­dent de­vel­op­ing a sim­ple app to help track mos­qui­to breed­ing sites, or a sec­ondary school sci­ence class turn­ing its project in­to a com­mu­ni­ty-wide aware­ness cam­paign. With sup­port, these small sparks can be­come pow­er­ful change.

When stu­dents are em­pow­ered, they don’t just learn, they trans­form their com­mu­ni­ties.

The wider pub­lic has its role too. Cov­er and clean wa­ter con­tain­ers, keep drains clear, and check on el­der­ly neigh­bours dur­ing ex­treme heat. Sup­port com­mu­ni­ty re­cy­cling and tree-plant­i­ng dri­ves. Ad­vo­cate for safer hous­ing, bet­ter drainage, and re­silient food sys­tems. These steps may feel small, but to­geth­er they build the re­silience our Caribbean needs.

On this World Stu­dents’ Day, let’s cel­e­brate our stu­dents as learn­ers and as lead­ers. Let’s in­vest in their voic­es, ideas, and cre­ativ­i­ty. Giv­en the chance, they will rise to cli­mate change’s chal­lenge, re­shap­ing the fu­ture of our na­tion. Every cov­ered bar­rel, every cleared drain, every tree plant­ed, every idea test­ed by a stu­dent leader adds up to a health­i­er, more re­silient coun­try. By em­pow­er­ing stu­dents, we en­sure that the sto­ry of cli­mate change in T&T is not one of de­feat, but of de­ter­mi­na­tion, in­no­va­tion, and sur­vival.

Dr Reyad Ho­sein MBBS, MPH (dist)

reyad.ho­sein@my.uwi.edu

The fore­go­ing was a week­ly col­umn by Earth­Medic and Earth­Nurse NGO to help read­ers un­der­stand and ad­dress the cli­mate and health cri­sis.