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Health Preparedness Readies for Climate Change

Climate change is anticipated to have a broad range of impacts on the health of Americans and the nation’s public health infrastructure

With the earth’s climate projected to undergo significant changes, CDC is pioneering new ways to understand, measure, and respond to the impact of environmental hazards on human health to help ensure healthy places for us to live, work, and play. These efforts include new tracking systems, better modeling, increased surveillance, and innovative research.

CDC also is developing the first-ever conceptual framework for public health actions in response to global climate change. Many of its existing programs and scientific expertise provide a solid foundation for responding to climate-related environmental hazards. Here are several areas where CDC is investing in climate change preparedness.

Environmental Public Health Tracking: CDC’s National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program has funded several states to build a health surveillance system that integrates environmental exposures and human health outcomes. Beginning in 2008, the Tracking Network will provide information on how health is affected by environmental hazards. The Network will contain critical data on the incidence, trends, and potential outbreaks of diseases, particularly those impacted by climate change.

Disease Surveillance: Preparing for climate change also involves working closely with state and local partners to document whether potential changes in climate have an impact on diseases transmitted through water, food, insects and animals. One such development is ArboNet, the national arthropod-borne viral disease tracking system. Currently, this system supports the nationwide West Nile virus surveillance system that maps cases in humans and animals, and would detect changes in real-time in the distribution and prevalence of cases. CDC’s PulseNet tracking system also is uniquely designed to identify climate-related changes in the incidence of food- and water-borne diseases.

Geographic Information System (GIS): CDC is applying GIS technology in unique and powerful ways, including public health responses to environmental hazards. It has been used in data collection, mapping, and communication to respond to issues as wide-ranging and varied as the World Trade Center collapse, avian flu, SARS, and Rift Valley fever. In addition, GIS technology was used to map issues of importance during the CDC response to Hurricane Katrina.

Modeling: Model projections of future climate change can be used as inputs for models that assess the impact of climate change on public health. For example, CDC has conducted heat stroke modeling for Philadelphia to predict the most vulnerable populations at risk for hyperthermia.

Health Protection Research: CDC promotes research to further study the specific relationships between climate change and health outcomes, including predictive models and evaluations of interventions.