Climate change, direct heat exposure, health and well-being in low and middle-income countries

Climate change and health has been given increasing attention during recent years, largely initiated and triggered by the insightful report by McMichael and colleagues published a decade ago. Until then research on, and analysis of, the impacts of climate change had focussed on environmental change and impacts on ecosystems. Further review of the health aspects and assessment of the contribution of climate change to the global burden of disease has led to a greater understanding of the importance of this issue and the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) includes a 40-page chapter on ‘Human health’. However, very sparse attention is paid to the non-fatal effects of direct heat exposure...