What’s New in Heat-Related Illnesses of Travel: Narrative Critical Appraisal and Summary of the Updated Guidelines from the Wilderness Medical Society

Omidi, Arghavan; Jazuli, Farah; Hawley, Gregory D.; Meconnen, Milca; Kain, Dylan; Polemidiotis, Mark; Do, Nam Phuong; Egbewumi, Olamide; Boggild, Andrea K.

doi:10.3390/cli14050106

This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.

Open AccessReview

What’s New in Heat-Related Illnesses of Travel: Narrative Critical Appraisal and Summary of the Updated Guidelines from the Wilderness Medical Society

by

Arghavan Omidi

¹,

Farah Jazuli

²,

Gregory D. Hawley

³

,

Milca Meconnen

⁴,

Dylan Kain

^3,5,

Mark Polemidiotis

^6,7,

Nam Phuong Do

⁸,

Olamide Egbewumi

⁹ and

Andrea K. Boggild

^3,6,8,9,*

¹

Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G 1G6, Canada

²

Department of Medicine, Division of Emergency Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8L 2X2, Canada

³

Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3H2, Canada

⁴

Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, Canada

⁵

School of Medicine, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR 97239-3098, USA

⁶

Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3G9, Canada

⁷

School of Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, D02 YN77 Dublin 2, Ireland

⁸

Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3H2, Canada

⁹

Tropical Disease Unit, Toronto General Hospital, 200 Elizabeth Street, 13NU1350, Toronto, ON M5G 2C4, Canada

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Climate 2026, 14(5), 106; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli14050106 (registering DOI)

Submission received: 25 March 2026 / Revised: 6 May 2026 / Accepted: 13 May 2026 / Published: 16 May 2026

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Global Health in a Changing Climate: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Well-Being)

Download Versions Notes

Abstract

Rising planetary temperatures and extreme heat events have led to an increased incidence of heat-related illnesses, such as heat stroke, globally. Widespread adoption of measures to prevent and treat heat-related illnesses is an increasingly urgent issue given the rising global temperatures; promotion of such evidence-based strategies is needed to reduce heat-related morbidity and mortality globally. Such heat-related environmental illnesses are differentially experienced by those without access to ambient cooling and those engaged in outdoor work and recreation. Moreover, the adverse impacts of heat-related illness experienced by residents of the Global South necessitates the inclusion of high-quality recommendations around prevention and treatment into clinical and public health practice in order to address health equity and human rights considerations. The current guidance on prevention strategies and therapeutic interventions for heat-related illness has been iterated and published by the Wilderness Medical Society (WMS). In this critical appraisal, we have summarized the evidence-based guidelines and highlighted the updated recommendations that reflect evolving issues in heat illness research. Application of the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II framework has enabled a quality assessment of the guidelines to be performed, which we present herein. The adoption of evidence-based practices around heat-related illness has the potential to reduce morbidity and mortality and improve global population-level health in light of the warming climate.

Keywords: climate change; environmental illness; global warming; heat illness; heat stroke

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Omidi, A.; Jazuli, F.; Hawley, G.D.; Meconnen, M.; Kain, D.; Polemidiotis, M.; Do, N.P.; Egbewumi, O.; Boggild, A.K. What’s New in Heat-Related Illnesses of Travel: Narrative Critical Appraisal and Summary of the Updated Guidelines from the Wilderness Medical Society. Climate 2026, 14, 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli14050106

AMA Style

Omidi A, Jazuli F, Hawley GD, Meconnen M, Kain D, Polemidiotis M, Do NP, Egbewumi O, Boggild AK. What’s New in Heat-Related Illnesses of Travel: Narrative Critical Appraisal and Summary of the Updated Guidelines from the Wilderness Medical Society. Climate. 2026; 14(5):106. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli14050106

Chicago/Turabian Style

Omidi, Arghavan, Farah Jazuli, Gregory D. Hawley, Milca Meconnen, Dylan Kain, Mark Polemidiotis, Nam Phuong Do, Olamide Egbewumi, and Andrea K. Boggild. 2026. "What’s New in Heat-Related Illnesses of Travel: Narrative Critical Appraisal and Summary of the Updated Guidelines from the Wilderness Medical Society" Climate 14, no. 5: 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli14050106

APA Style

Omidi, A., Jazuli, F., Hawley, G. D., Meconnen, M., Kain, D., Polemidiotis, M., Do, N. P., Egbewumi, O., & Boggild, A. K. (2026). What’s New in Heat-Related Illnesses of Travel: Narrative Critical Appraisal and Summary of the Updated Guidelines from the Wilderness Medical Society. Climate, 14(5), 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli14050106

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Article metric data becomes available approximately 24 hours after publication online.

Article Menu

What’s New in Heat-Related Illnesses of Travel: Narrative Critical Appraisal and Summary of the Updated Guidelines from the Wilderness Medical Society

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI