Paper details
| Paper authors | Mohamed Habsah, Ramesh Neupane |
| In panel on | Reimagining Humanitarian Response in the Face of Compounding Global Risks |
| Paper presenter(s) will be presenting |
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Abstract
Background: Climate change exacerbates global health infrastructure fragility, disproportionately impacting vulnerable populations. The report evaluates the health sector and community exposure to climate hazards in Susta Rural Municipality, Nepal through the WHO framework. The research goals included studying climate patterns and detecting climate-sensitive illnesses and assessing both community preparedness and health system readiness to develop adaptation measures.
Methodology: The research analyzed meteorological data spanning from 1980 to 2022 together with infectious disease records obtained from HMIS. The research used community surveys to evaluate vulnerability while focus groups provided local expert insights. The assessment of healthcare facilities' climate change susceptibility followed WHO guidelines.
Results: The climate data from 2011 to 2022 showed rising minimum temperatures together with unpredictable precipitation patterns. The health data from 2018 to 2023 demonstrated that communicable diseases correlated with environmental conditions. The community survey results demonstrated that residents had limited economic resources and relied on farming while facing unequal healthcare service availability. The health facility assessments showed major weaknesses in emergency readiness and communication systems and infrastructure stability.
Conclusion: The region encounters multiple health difficulties because climate variability affects both community readiness and health system preparedness. Sustainable health outcomes require integrated disease surveillance systems and community resilience development alongside improved healthcare accessibility. The recommendations call for combining climate and health data while investing in resilient infrastructure and developing climate-sensitive policies and capacity building programs and cross-sector collaboration for sustainable health outcomes.
