In the past years, India broadened its response to climate change with a plan to tackle the adverse impact of climate change on health. In 2018 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare approved ‘The ‘National Action Plan for Climate Change and Human Health’ (NAPCCHH) and the ‘National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health (NPCCHH).
The key areas of focus for NPCCHH include air pollution, heat related illnesses and the creation of green and climate resilient healthcare facilities. In this context, the Indian government created several ‘Centres of Excellence’ with the aim of facilitating the successful planning and implementation of the programme. CHARISMA’s Indian partner PHFI-CEH is one of these Centres of Excellence (CoE). These centres aim at the development of public health adaptation plans in preparation for regional action plans.
These plans include:
• The preparation of disease calendars for different geo-agro-climatic zones to be used to take appropriate and timely action
• Trend forcast of climate-sensitive diseases by age and population group;
• Mapping the conditions and risk factors that favour the emergence and spread of diseases and communicate these conditions and risk factors effectively to the regions for concrete action in the field.
The climate health service information system that CHARISMA will develop is of great importance for the development of health action plans. They allow exposure and vulnerability assessments for climate-related diseases such as heat stress and vector-borne diseases. This exposure can be carried out for current and future climate conditions.