Climate Change and Human Health: Resilient Healthcare Strategies for Disease Mitigation

Dear Colleagues,

We present the Special Issue “Climate Change and Human Health: Resilient Healthcare Strategies for Disease Mitigation”, highlighting the significant progress that has been made in emphasising the role of healthcare systems in climate resilience. This issue underscores the growing significance of how climate change and other environmental factors are impacting global health. Healthcare systems play a crucial role in managing these effects, particularly through preventive strategies, adaptive policies, and technological innovations. This issue is particularly relevant for vulnerable communities who are often disproportionately affected by climate change due to their limited capacity to adapt to changing conditions.

We invite researchers and healthcare professionals to contribute scientific articles exploring how healthcare systems can manage the impacts of climate change and improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations.

Objectives:

• Exploring the role of healthcare systems: Emphasise how healthcare systems can implement preventive strategies, public policies, and adopt technological innovations to address climate-related diseases.
• Health policy interventions to improve vaccine accessibility in climate-vulnerable regions: Reducing the clinical focus and enhancing policy and equity angles.
• Evaluating the implications of climate change on healthcare: Analyse how the impacts of climate change influence healthcare provision, patient outcomes, and community interventions.
• Vector control and environmental monitoring: Explicitly link data to healthcare infrastructure, for example, by integrating environmental data into public health decision making.
• Promoting an interdisciplinary approach: Integrate perspectives from environmental science, public health, and clinical practice to develop innovative solutions for effective adaptive responses.
• Health communication: Position initiatives as community-driven health education frameworks for climate adaptation.

Context and Relevance: Climate change is driving an increase in global temperatures, extreme weather events, and environmental degradation, which pose multiple risks to human health. Healthcare systems, especially in vulnerable areas, must adapt to mitigate the effects of these changes. This includes implementing public health policies that account for new climate realities, effective preventive strategies to reduce the burden of diseases, and the use of technological innovations to enhance healthcare provision during crises.

Health Impacts and the Role of Healthcare Systems:

• Respiratory and cardiovascular diseases: Heatwaves and air pollution, exacerbated by climate change, are increasing the incidence of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Healthcare systems must focus on prevention through promoting healthy habits, monitoring air quality and implementing policies to protect vulnerable populations, such as children and the elderly.
• Vector-borne diseases: Climate change is facilitating the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue, affecting populations in areas where these outbreaks were previously unknown. In this regard, healthcare systems should integrate real-time monitoring technologies, improve epidemiological surveillance, and implement preventive measures such as the distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets and vector control.
• Food security and nutrition: Climate change affects agricultural production, which may lead to food insecurity and malnutrition, especially in rural communities. Healthcare systems need to coordinate with public health and food security policies, implementing educational strategies to promote adequate nutrition and responding to food crises.
• Mental health: Natural disasters and climate instability generate stress, anxiety, and other mental health issues. Healthcare systems must integrate mental health services, establishing psychological support programmes for those affected by extreme weather events and using telemedicine technologies to provide remote support to vulnerable populations.

Call for Authors: We invite researchers to submit articles addressing, among other topics, the following:

• Preventive strategies in healthcare systems: Research on how healthcare systems are implementing preventive strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change on health, such as vaccination campaigns, education on respiratory and cardiovascular health, and vector-borne disease prevention.
• Adaptive public health policies: Analyses of regulatory frameworks and public health policies that integrate climate change adaptation to strengthen healthcare system resilience in the face of extreme climate events.
• Technological innovations in healthcare: Studies on the use of technology to enhance the prevention and management of climate-related diseases, such as telemedicine platforms, early warning systems for disease outbreaks, and environmental monitoring technologies.
• Transdisciplinary research: Works integrating knowledge from environmental science, public health, and clinical practice to address the effects of climate change on human health in an integrated manner and develop effective solutions.

Practical Implications: Climate change impacts not only healthcare provision but also patient outcomes and community interventions. Healthcare systems must be better prepared to address the effects of climate change by implementing preventive policies, adapting infrastructures to withstand extreme climate events, and strengthening community health systems. Interdisciplinary collaboration between professionals in public health, environmental science, and clinical practice is essential to offer effective solutions that minimise the negative impacts of climate change on health.

Conclusion: Health and environmental sustainability are intrinsically linked, and healthcare systems must adopt a proactive approach that includes prevention, adaptation, and technological innovation to address the challenges of climate change. It is vital to integrate the perspectives of public health, environmental science, and clinical practice to develop a comprehensive and effective approach that protects the most vulnerable populations. We encourage authors to contribute their research and be part of this global effort to improve health and sustainability.

Contact: For more information on how to submit your articles, please visit our website or contact our editorial team.

Prof. Dr. Pedro Belinchón-deMiguel
Prof. Dr. Ana Isabel Beltrán-Velasco
Prof. Dr. Vicente Javier Clemente Suárez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• climate change
• healthcare systems
• preventive strategies
• adaptive policies
• technological innovations
• public health
• community health
• respiratory diseases
• cardiovascular diseases
• telemedicine