Jakarta, April 29 -- Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin emphasized the need for health infrastructure improvements to address climate change, as it could pose risks such as the spread of diseases.

He stated that climate change triggered infectious diseases as it prompted changes in the interaction between animals and humans. When the change in interaction happens too often, it could lead to a pandemic.

"For example, Asian bird flu and then COVID-19, which allegedly originated in bats," he remarked after the signing of a cooperation project with UNDP and WHO here on Monday.

He said that before zoonotic diseases jump to humans, the animals that carry them must be studied or researched, such as on their pathogens, so vaccines and medicat...