BANGKOK - The rise of deadly new diseases such as SARS and bird flu could be linked to the destruction of the environment, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

"Human health is strongly linked to the health of ecosystems, which meet many of our most critical needs," Maria Neira, director of WHO's Department of Protection of the Human Environment told a news conference at the launch of a new report.

Population growth and economic development were leading to rapid changes in global ecosystems and this was affecting human health, the report said.

It said natural resources such as water, food, fuel and climate were important to prevent diseases and sustain good health as many human diseases originated in animals.

Such diseases, including influenza, tuberculosis and measles, established themselves in human populations after crossing from domesticated animal species including chickens, cattle and dogs.

"As a result of human actions, the structure and the world's ecosystems changed more rapidly in the second half of the twentieth century than at any other time in human history," the report said.

About 60 percent of the benefits that the global systems provided to support life on Earth were being degraded and used substantially, said the report, which involved more than 1,300 experts worldwide.

Harmful consequences to human health were being felt and could grow significantly worse over the next 50 years, it said.

Pressure on the environment could have unpredictable and potentially severe future impacts on health, the WHO said. It said regions facing the greatest risks included sub-Sahara Africa, Central Asia, parts of Latin America and parts of South and Southeast Asia.

"For the poor people, they might represent the problem in terms of food production, in particular, drought and flooding. And the problem is increasing," Neira said.

The report said some of the most serious problems included nutrition as degradation of fish stocks and farmland were factors in the malnutrition of some 800 million people around the world -- nearly all of them in poor countries.

Water-associated infectious diseases claimed 3.2 million lives each year, about 6 percent of all deaths, the report said.

Yet more than 1 billion people lacked access to safe water supplies and 2.6 billion lacked adequate sanitation, it said.

© Reuters 2005

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