INTRODUCTION
The scientific community has now clearly recognized that short-term climate variations from weeks to months and seasons can have significant impacts on human health. In particular extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall and flooding, droughts, heat waves, dust and air pollution, can trigger infectious disease outbreaks with adverse effects on public health. For example malaria and rift valley fever epidemics can be amplified by excessive rainfall surpluses. Likewise, extremely elevated air temperature and relative humidity can cause cardiovascular illnesses. The impact of climate variations on health is a global issue, but proven to be more acute in the developing world, especially Africa. The NOAA’s Climate Prediction with access to global climate observations and model data, and expertise in the monitoring and forecasting of the global climate system, provides access to operational real time climate information that can enable decision making in various socio-economic sectors including public health. This webpage is designed to provide information relevant to the malaria and heat-health communities in Africa. Information can also be of benefit to health professionals working on Rift Valley Fever and meningitis. The intent is to work with the international institutions to expand the tools.
www.nws.noaa.gov
