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The climate crisis and health in humanitarian settings | Collections | MSF Science Portal
The climate crisis and health in humanitarian settings

The climate crisis and health in humanitarian settings

The climate crisis is also a health and humanitarian crisis, disproportionately impacting people in the world’s most climate-sensitive regions—mainly low- and low-middle income countries with the least capacity to respond.

MSF and other humanitarian organizations witness the consequences daily. More frequent, intense weather events and a warming planet contribute to food and water scarcity, more severe and widespread disease outbreaks, and more injuries and preventable deaths. They also drive massive population displacement, with over 32 million people fleeing their homes in 2022 alone due to floods, drought, storms and fire—nearly triple the number displaced by violence and conflict.

To mark Earth Day 2024 (22 April) we present a cross-section of work by MSF and collaborators, drawing from a range of data sources and from first-hand experience at our medical projects. Emphasizing the urgency of adapting humanitarian operations to the climate crisis, the collection also explores loss and damage through a health lens, proposes policies and practices for creating climate-resilient health organizations, and advocates for embedding fair, just ethics perspectives into humanitarian action and research on climate.

Collection Content

Technical Report
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Policy Brief

Joint brief: The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change & Médecins Sans Frontières

Voûte C, Baker H, Baidjoe AY, Bartrem C, Charrier M,  et al.
2024-10-29
2024-10-29

At the time of writing, many people around the world are feeling the pain, disruption, and devastating health consequences driven by climate change. The world has been shocked by the ...

Journal Article
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Research

Impacts of climate change on human health in humanitarian settings: Evidence gaps and future research needs

McIver L, Beavon E, Malm A, Awad A, Uyen A,  et al.
2024-03-06 • PLOS Climate
2024-03-06 • PLOS Climate
This mixed-methods study focuses on the evidence of the health impacts of climate change on populations affected by humanitarian crises, presented from the perspective of Médecins Sans F...
Technical Report
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Policy Brief

Lancet Countdown on Climate Change and Health: Policy brief from Médecins Sans Frontières 2023

Blume C, Dallatomasinas S, Devine C, Goikolea I, Guevara M,  et al.
2023-11-15
2023-11-15
Most of the over 70 countries Médecins Sans Frontières /Doctors Without Borders (MSF) works in are in lower-income regions. They are facing not only humanitarian crises but also the most...
Journal Article
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Commentary

What cannot be mitigated or adapted to, will be suffered. Loss and damage in health and humanitarian terms

Schwerdtle PN, Devine C, Guevara M, Cornish S, Christou C,  et al.
2023-09-09 • The Journal of Climate Change and Health
2023-09-09 • The Journal of Climate Change and Health
Journal Article
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Review

Ethics, climate change and health – a landscape review

Sheather J, Littler K, Singh JA, Wright K
2023-08-14 • Wellcome Open Research
2023-08-14 • Wellcome Open Research
Anthropogenic climate change is unequivocal, and many of its physical health impacts have been identified, although further research is required into the mental health and wellbeing effe...
Conference Material
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Video

Planetary health and neglected tropical diseases

McIver L
2022-12-01 • MSF Paediatric Days 2022
2022-12-01 • MSF Paediatric Days 2022
Conference Material
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Video

Time for action: Climate change in the humanitarian sector

Issa R
2022-11-30 • MSF Paediatric Days 2022
2022-11-30 • MSF Paediatric Days 2022
Journal Article
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Commentary

The relationship between climate change, health, and the humanitarian response

Baxter LM, McGowan CR, Smiley S, Palacios L, Devine C,  et al.
2022-11-05 • Lancet
2022-11-05 • Lancet
The climate emergency is a humanitarian and health crisis. Extreme weather events, heat stress, declining air quality, changes in water quality and quantity, declining food security and ...
Journal Article
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Review

Climate-sensitive disease outbreaks in the aftermath of extreme climatic events: A scoping review

Alcayna T, Fletcher I, Gibb R, Tremblay LL, Funk S,  et al.
2022-04-15 • One Earth
2022-04-15 • One Earth
Outbreaks of climate-sensitive infectious diseases (CSID) in the aftermath of extreme climatic events, such as floods, droughts, tropical cyclones, and heatwaves, are of high public heal...
Journal Article
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Commentary

A failure of ambition on climate action will amplify humanitarian needs

Voûte C, Guevara M, Schwerdtle PN
2021-12-03 • British Medical Journal (BMJ)
2021-12-03 • British Medical Journal (BMJ)
Humanitarian actors are struggling to keep up with the demands of increasingly frequent, erratic, and overlapping crises at current levels of warming.
Journal Article
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Commentary

Calibrating to scale: a framework for humanitarian health organizations to anticipate, prevent, prepare for and manage climate-related health risks

Schwerdtle PN, Irvine E, Brockington S, Devine C, Guevara M,  et al.
2020-07-09 • Globalization and Health
2020-07-09 • Globalization and Health
Climate change is adversely affecting health by increasing human vulnerability and exposure to climate-related stresses. Climate change impacts human health both directly and indirectly,...

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Safe abortion care at MSF
Safe abortion care at MSF

Unsafe abortion is a major cause of maternal death, and the only one that is completely preventable. Yet over 30 million unsafe abortions occur each year, leading to at least 29,000 deaths and millions of serious complications—nearly all in low- and middle-income countries. MSF teams see these tragic consequences first-hand, treating thousands of patients every year with severe, potentially life-threatening effects from unsafe abortion.


To mark International Safe Abortion Awareness Day (28 September 2024), this Collection presents highlights of MSF’s work on safe abortion care (SAC) as a way to reduce maternal death and injury. By re-assessing and reshaping how our projects deliver SAC in fragile and conflict-affected settings, we have been able to significantly expand services in those contexts and across MSF projects globally. In parallel, we also conducted in-depth studies of abortion complications and their contributing factors in fragile settings, where a dearth of evidence limits understanding of women's needs in accessing comprehensive care. These findings are helping to identify gaps in service delivery and inform operational decision-making.

Medical and humanitarian harms of restrictive European migration policies
Medical and humanitarian harms of restrictive European migrat...
Conflict, persecution, poverty, food insecurity and natural disasters—increasingly fueled by climate change—continue to drive migration globally. Yet many wealthy countries are doubling down on hostile policies to prevent people from seeking safety within their borders, thereby subjecting them to a wide range of harms. In a newly-published report MSF focuses on European Union and member state policies that intensify exposure to violence, exploitation, risk of drowning at sea, disease, and lack of access to basic health care and shelter, both within European Union borders and beyond. The Collection linked below presents this report alongside selected publications illustrating the broader context, based on quantitative studies and accounts from MSF patients and medical teams over nearly a decade of operational experience along the European migration route. From violent, squalid detention centers in Libya— where people intercepted by the EU-supported Libyan coast guard are forcibly returned —to perilous Mediterranean crossings in flimsy rubber boats and often abysmal reception centers and camps within the EU, it documents how these policies and practices further harm highly vulnerable people seeking safety and protection.
TB-PRACTECAL Trial—Evidence for a shorter, safer, more effective treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis
TB-PRACTECAL Trial—Evidence for a shorter, safer, more effect...
Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) remains an especially deadly form of the ancient scourge of TB, while current treatments are long, toxic, and ineffective for half of all patients. Aiming to change this unacceptable status quo, in the mid-2010’s MSF and partners launched three clinical trials to test novel regimens containing the first new TB drugs in decades. On 22 December 2022 the New England Journal of Medicine published findings from TB-PRACTECAL, a three-country randomized controlled trial, showing that a shorter regimen is safer and cured 89% of DR-TB patients, compared with 52% on the standard of care. These findings have already been incorporated into the World Health Organization’s new TB treatment guidelines. A separate study shows that the new regimen is also more cost-effective. Alongside these results the content collection linked below highlights other aspects of the trial, from community engagement strategies that helped shape TB-PRACTECAL to setbacks arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. It also examines urgent challenges in scaling up access to these life-saving drugs, including affordability and patent barriers.
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