The Impact of Climate Change on Communicable Disease Transmission: a Survey of Perception, Attitude and Adaptation Measurements among CDC Health Professionals in Shanxi Province, China

Abstract

INTRODUCTION There have been increasing concerns about the challenge of emerging and re-emerging of infectious diseases due to climate change, especially in developing countries including China. Health professionals play a significant role in the battle against negative health impact due to climate change. This study aims to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of the health impact due to climate change among the health professionals in the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in China, and to assess adaptation measures to deal with such challenge in current CDC system in China. METHODS In 2013, a cross-sectional questionnaire survey was undertaken among 314 CDC staff in various levels of CDC in Shanxi, China whose routine work are about infectious disease control and prevention. Descriptive analysis and logistic regression were performed. RESULTS Majority of CDC staff were aware of the health risks from climate change especially its impacts on infectious disease transmission in their jurisdictions, and believed climate change might bring about both temporal and spatial change of infectious diseases. Adaptation measures should be established including: strengthening/improving surveillance system and vector monitoring; CDC capacity building to meet the health challenge due to climate change including both infrastructure and in-house health professional training; development and refine of relevant legislation, policies, regulations and guidelines; better coordination mechanism among various government departments; the involvement of community for infectious disease intervention and collaborative research with research institutions. CONCLUSION The results will help inform future efforts to develop adaptation measures to minimize the health risk of climate change on infectious disease transmission.