There is now widespread agreement that the earth is warming. Humankind’s activities are altering the world’s climate by increasing the atmospheric concentration of energy-trapping gases (greenhouse gases), thereby amplifying the natural “greenhouse effect”.  It is also evident that current global trends in energy use, development and population growth will lead to continuing – and more severe – climate change. Climate change is now recognized as one significant and emerging threat to public health in the 21st century by the United Nations Security Council (UN SC). Therefore, protecting health from the deleterious effects of climate change is an emerging priority for the public health community. 

A fact sheet published by World Health Organization (WHO) in 2018 reveals that the population at greater risks of being affected by this change are the elderly and people with infirmities or pre-existing medical conditions. The groups who are likely to bear most of the resulting disease burden are children and the poor, especially women. Though Climate change has great impacts on human health, the impact depends also on the quality and availability of public healthcare.

Climate change is likely to cause changes in ecological systems that will increase the risk of infectious diseases globally through water, food, air, rodents and arthropod vectors. 

According to the Operational framework for building climate-resilient health systems by WHO,  due to climatic changes, there is an increased number of warm days and nights; increased frequency and intensity of heatwaves; increased fire risk in low rainfall conditions and these causes excess heat-related mortality; increased incidence of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, particularly for outdoor labourers, athletes, the elderly; exacerbated circulatory, cardiovascular, respiratory and kidney diseases; increased premature mortality related to ozone and air pollution produced by fires, particularly during heatwaves.

However, despite these challenges, a lot can be done to protect against deterioration of health due to climatic conditions by calling on the health community to actively raise awareness and advocacy, and in strengthening the evidence base on the health impacts of climate change. This also includes integrating climate resilience into existing and future core health system programming and developing tools to assess the health implications of mitigation policies. Also, health action towards the current climate condition can be strengthened through partnerships with government bodies, academic institution, and civil societies working with communities to create a community-based action to ensure that people are informed, educated and able to take appropriate action to protect and maintain their individual and families’ health.