The interaction between health and climate change has only begun to be explored and currently concentrates primarily on food security, hunger and malnutrition. The WHO [http://www.who.int/topics/climate/en/] have overviews in English and French on the various challenges climate change poses to human health. Health linkages have also been investigated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [www.ipcc.ch] in Chapter 8 of their fourth assessment report. These reports underscore that the major global challenges to human health caused by climate change include: air pollution; an increase in infectious diseases; food security and malnutrition.
Specific diseases have been explored in relation to a changing climate, mainly cholera, malaria and meningitis in Africa through academic journals such as the BMC Infectious diseases journal , the Malaria Journal, and International Journal of Health Geographics. For information on accessing online journals for free if you are based in Africa see GDNet . The IRD- Institut de Recherche en Developpement [www.ird.fr] has published a French article in Actualite Scientifique on climate change and the emergence of cholera in Africa . Overall however, the linkages between health and climate change remain an important but underexplored area of study.