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Climate Change
and Health
Group leader:
Prof. Rainer Sauerborn
Members:
Dr. Valérie Louis
Dr. Sabine Gabrysch*
Dr. Yazoumé Yé
Dr. Shelby Yamamoto
*Associated members
Doctoral students:
Aditi Chebbi
Aminul Haq
Alina Vandenbergh
Peter Dambach
Revati Phalkey
Humboldt scholar:
Maduni Madanayake
Research projects run in
the group
CLIMIMO (Climate change, migration and
mortality)
This is a cooperation with 11 INDEPTH sites
and Umeå University, Sweden. Research
includes time series analysis on data from
11 INDEPTH research centres from Sub-
Saharan Africa and Asia. Age- and cause-
and spatially-specific deaths were analyzed
against temperature, humidity and rainfall
data of the day of death and lagged by days
to three months. The results have been
submitted as a special volume of "Global
Health Action".
PALUCLIM (Impacts of climate factors on
the production of malaria vectors)
The aim is to guide larvicidal antimalarial
intervention to ecosystems of high transmis-
sion risk using satellite proxies, which have
previously been validated on the ground
through entomological data (both larva and
adult mosquitoes). The project is in colla-
boration with the University of Toulouse,
the French Space Research Centre, Météo
France and the CRSN Nouna.
Aging and Climate change:
This is a joint Umeå-HIPH group, where
the post doc, Dr. Barbara Schumann, from
Umeå at the Center for Aging and Living
Conditions (ALC) and two doctoral students
are affiliated with the Heidelberg NAR (Net-
work of Aging Research), of which our insti-
tute is a member. The two doctoral theses,
supervised by Rainer Sauerborn, will focus
on the impact of climate change on morbi-
dity and mortality of the elderly in Sub-
Saharan Africa and changes in prescribing
practices for multi-morbid elderly patients
during heat waves in Germany.
There will be no diseases exclusively speci-
fic of climate change, rather climate change
modifies and amplifies existing health risks
in a great array of climate-sensitive disea-
ses. This will particularly affect low- and
middle-income countries, raising serious
issues of inequity. There is good evidence
that the health impacts will be in the areas
of malnutrition, infectious diseases, diarrhea,
and cardiovascular diseases. Particularly
vulnerable groups are likely to be infants,
young children and the elderly. There is a
large need for detailed, population-based
studies of health impact by linking disease
datasets with meteorological informationl.
Climate theses need to be longitudinal
covering at least 10 years. Our close
collaboration with the INDEPTH network
gives us access to such datasets, both
retrospectively and prospectively. Impacts
can be avoided through what the climate
community calls "adaptation" interventions
and policies. These may be within the
health sector or outside. Adaptation within
the sector include surveillance systems for
climate-sensitive diseases, early warning
systems, e.g. for vector-borne diseases,
enhanced control efforts on geographic or
socioeconomic target groups.