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Purpose: General practitioners (GPs) could play a role in mitigating climate change by raising awareness of its impact on human health and implementing changes to improve population health and decreasing environmental footprints. The aim of this study was to assess GPs’ knowledge and perspectives about the health impacts of climate change. Method: A questionnaire was sent to 1972 GPs in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Knowledge of the impact of environmental degradations and climate change on health and willingness to address climate change with patients, to be exemplary and to act as role models were surveyed as well as demographic characteristics of GPs. Results: Respondents (N = 497) expressed a high level of self-reported knowledge regarding climate change, although it was lower for more specific topics, such as planetary health or health–environment co-benefits. Participants mostly agreed that it is necessary to adapt clinical practice to the health impacts of climate change and that they have a role in providing information on climate change and its links to human health. Conclusion: Most of the GPs were concerned about environmental and climate degradation. However, this study revealed a gap between the willingness of GPs to integrate the impact of climate change on health into their clinical activities and their lack of overall knowledge and scientific evidence on effective interventions. A promising way forward may be to develop co-benefit interventions adapted to the clinical setting on diet, active mobility and connecting with nature.

General practitioners (GPs) could play a role in mitigating climate change by raising awareness of its impact on human health and implementing changes to improve population health and decreasing environmental footprints. The aim of this study was to assess GPs' knowledge and perspectives about the health impacts of climate change. A questionnaire was sent to 1972 GPs in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Knowledge of the impact of environmental degradations and climate change on health and willingness to address climate change with patients, to be exemplary and to act as role models were surveyed as well as demographic characteristics of GPs. Respondents (N = 497) expressed a high level of self-reported knowledge regarding climate change, although it was lower for more specific topics, such as planetary health or health-environment co-benefits. Participants mostly agreed that it is necessary to adapt clinical practice to the health impacts of climate change and that they have a role in providing information on climate change and its links to human health. Most of the GPs were concerned about environmental and climate degradation. However, this study revealed a gap between the willingness of GPs to integrate the impact of climate change on health into their clinical activities and their lack of overall knowledge and scientific evidence on effective interventions. A promising way forward may be to develop co-benefit interventions adapted to the clinical setting on diet, active mobility and connecting with nature.

Throughout recent years, we have witnessed an increase in human migration as a result of conflict, political instability and changes in the climate. Despite the growing number of migrants and refugees, provisions to address their health needs remain inadequate and often unmet. Whilst a variety of instruments exist to assert and emphasise the importance for migrant and refugee health, the lack of shared priorities between partners and stakeholders results in poor access to healthcare and essential medicines. In response to the growing health challenges faced by migrants and refugees, members of the M8 Alliance launched an annual Expert Meeting on Migrants’ and Refugees’ Health. This report is shaped by discussions from the second M8 Alliance Expert Meeting (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, 15–16 June 2018) and is supported by supplementing literature to develop a framework addressing critical reflections, challenges and solutions of and for migrant and refugee health. This report aims to inform decision-making fostering a humanitarian, ethics and rights-based approach. Through a series of country-specific case studies and discussions, this report captures the most prominent themes and recommendations such as mental health, tuberculosis (TB) and best practices for increased access.

The negative implications of climate change for human health are now well-established. Yet these have not been fully considered into climate change communication strategies. Research suggests that reorienting climate change communication with a health frame could be a useful communication strategy. We conducted a long-term and broad overview of existing scientific literature in order to summarize the state of research activity in this area, by extent and by nature. The methodology is based on a scoping review of scientific articles published on climate change communication and health between 1990 and mid-2016 indexed in the PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science databases. The screened citations were reviewed for inclusion and data were extracted and coded in order to conduct quantitative (e.g. frequencies) and qualitative (i.e. content analysis) analyses.Out of 2,866 identified published papers, only 24 articles were eligible for analyses. The main themes identified were effective communication of climate change (n=10, 41.7%), the role of health professionals (n=10, 41.7%) and the perception of climate change (n=4, 16.7%). We identified a large proportion of secondary research articles (n= 15, 62.5%) including reviews (n=5, 20.8%) and opinion articles (n=10, 41.7%). A significant share - 37.57% (n=9) - of the identified articles were classified as original research articles, suggesting that the number of publications in this area - particularly original research - has not grown rapidly.This scoping review identified several themes including effective communication of climate change, the role of health professionals, and the perception of climate change in the selected articles on the subject. The research literature on the communication of climate change and health is relatively recent and emerging: the first articles on the subject were published from 2008 onward only.

We need to rapidly detect and respond to public rumours, perceptions, attitudes and behaviours around COVID-19 and control measures. The creation of an interactive platform and dashboard to provide real-time alerts of rumours and concerns about coronavirus spreading globally would enable public health officials and relevant stakeholders to respond rapidly with a proactive and engaging narrative that can mitigate misinformation.

Despite the greatly increased numbers of migrants and refugees worldwide in recent years, insufficient attention has been paid to addressing their health needs. While a variety of international instruments assert the right to health, in practice, migrants and refugees—especially those awaiting clarification of their status, such as asylum seekers and those without documentation—often fall in cracks between service providers and humanitarian relief programmes at national and regional levels. This report provides a summary of the current state of knowledge regarding the health issues of migrants and refugees and of the extent to which they are being met. It highlights, through a series of case studies, the diverse approaches to policies, entitlements and services provided in different jurisdictions, ranging from regional (Europe) and country (Germany, Iran, Italy, Turkey, South Africa) levels to provinces and cities (Quebec/Montreal, Berlin). These provide evidence of successes and challenges and highlight areas requiring further effort, including in the domains of policy, service design and delivery, education and training, research and communication. They also underscore the challenges of highly neglected aspects such as mental health and the critical importance of developing cultural/transnational competence in the health professional individuals and institutions working with migrants and refugees. Results from discussions taking place in an M8 Alliance Expert Group Meeting (Rome, 23–24 June 2017) and from the literature are synthesised to develop an ‘agenda of solutions’. This agenda aims to provide a comprehensive framework, which bridges humanitarian, ethical and rights-based imperatives to provide a framework for action to tackle this crucial area.

Graphs are prevalent in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), often depicting key points and major results. However, the popularity of graphs in the IPCC reports contrasts with a neglect of empirical tests of their understandability. Here we put the understandability of three graphs taken from the Health chapter of the Fifth Assessment Report to an empirical test. We present a pilot study where we evaluate objective understanding (mean accuracy in multiple-choice questions) and subjective understanding (self-assessed confidence in accuracy) in a sample of attendees of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Marrakesh, 2016 (COP22), and a student sample. Results show a mean objective understanding of M = 0.33 for the COP sample, and M = 0.38 for the student sample. Subjective and objective understanding were unrelated for the COP22 sample, but associated for the student sample. These results suggest that (i) understandability of the IPCC health chapter graphs is insufficient, and that (ii) particularly COP22 attendees lacked insight into which graphs they did, and which they did not understand. Implications for the construction of graphs to communicate health impacts of climate change to decision-makers are discussed.

While until recently the small and isolated Zika outbreaks in Eastern Asia and Pacific islands had been overlooked, the large-scale outbreak that started in Brazil in 2015 and the increase of microcephaly cases in the same place and time made media headlines. Considered as harmless until recently, Zika has given rise to an important global crisis that poses not only health challenges but also environmental, economical, social, and ethical challenges for states and people around the world. The main objective of this paper is to review the recent Zika outbreak by covering a broad range of disciplines and their interactions. This paper synthetises experts’ interviews and reactions conducted during a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) entitled “In the footsteps of Zika…approaching the unknown.” It reviews knowledge and uncertainties around epidemiology, geographical dispersion of the virus and its vectors through globalization and climate change, and also its modes of transmission, diagnosis, symptoms, and treatment of the disease. The resulting societal and ethical issues in pregnancy and women of reproductive age were also addressed as well as the global outbreak alert and response network in international organizations and social media. This paper attempted to combine each piece of the jigsaw puzzle of the Zika phenomenon to complete the best realistic picture, while keeping in mind the balance between the interdisciplinary nature and international context of Zika and its unique characteristics.

The Lancet Countdown: tracking progress on health and climate change is an international, multidisciplinary research collaboration between academic institutions and practitioners across the world. It follows on from the work of the 2015 Lancet Commission, which concluded that the response to climate change could be "the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century". The Lancet Countdown aims to track the health impacts of climate hazards; health resilience and adaptation; health co-benefits of climate change mitigation; economics and finance; and political and broader engagement. These focus areas form the five thematic working groups of the Lancet Countdown and represent different aspects of the complex association between health and climate change. These thematic groups will provide indicators for a global overview of health and climate change; national case studies highlighting countries leading the way or going against the trend; and engagement with a range of stakeholders. The Lancet Countdown ultimately aims to report annually on a series of indicators across these five working groups. This paper outlines the potential indicators and indicator domains to be tracked by the collaboration, with suggestions on the methodologies and datasets available to achieve this end. The proposed indicator domains require further refinement, and mark the beginning of an ongoing consultation process-from November, 2016 to early 2017-to develop these domains, identify key areas not currently covered, and change indicators where necessary. This collaboration will actively seek to engage with existing monitoring processes, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and WHO's climate and health country profiles. The indicators will also evolve over time through ongoing collaboration with experts and a range of stakeholders, and be dependent on the emergence of new evidence and knowledge. During the course of its work, the Lancet Countdown will adopt a collaborative and iterative process, which aims to complement existing initiatives, welcome engagement with new partners, and be open to developing new research projects on health and climate change.

Introduction For 28 years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been assessing the potential risks associated with anthropogenic climate change. Although interest in climate change and health is growing, the implications arising from their interaction remain understudied. Generating a greater understanding of the health impacts of climate change could be key step in inciting some of the changes necessary to decelerate global warming. A long-term and broad overview of the existing scientific literature in the field of climate change and health is currently missing in order to ensure that all priority areas are being adequately addressed. In this paper we outline our methods to conduct a scoping review of the published peer-reviewed literature on climate change and health between 1990 and 2015. Methods and analysis A detailed search strategy will be used to search the PubMed and Web of Science databases. Specific inclusion and exclusion criteria will be applied in order to capture the most relevant literature in the time frame chosen. Data will be extracted, categorised and coded to allow for statistical analysis of the results. Ethics and dissemination No ethical approval was required for this study. A searchable database of climate change and health publications will be developed and a manuscript will be complied for publication and dissemination of the findings. We anticipate that this study will allow us to map the trends observed in publications over the 25-year time period in climate change and health research. It will also identify the research areas with the highest volume of publications as well as highlight the research trends in climate change and health.

The translation of science from research to real-world change is a central goal of public health. Communication has an essential role to play in provoking a response to climate change. It must first raise awareness, make people feel involved and ultimately motivate them to take action. The goal of this research is to understand how the information related to this issue is being addressed and disseminated to different audiences-public citizens, politicians and key climate change stakeholders. Initial results show that the scientific voice struggles to globally highlight this issue to a general audience and that messages that address the topic do not meet the challenges, going from a dramatic framing to a basic adaptation framing. Communication experts can help inform scientists and policy makers on how to best share information about climate change in an engaging and motivating way. This study gives an insight about the key role of the media and communications in addressing themes relating to climate change and transmitting information to the public in order to take action.