Costs of Adapting to Climate Change for Human Health in Developing Countries

This paper is one component of a global study on the Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change (EACC) in developing countries; the focus in this paper is human health. The main human health impacts of climate change are increased incidence of vector-borne disease (malaria), water-borne disease (diarrhea), cardio respiratory diseases, heat- and cold-related deaths, injuries and deaths from extreme weather events (flooding), and a greater prevalence of malnutrition. Adaptation measures comprise all actions taken to reduce, prevent, or treat these additional cases of disease or death, including actions outside the health sector such as disaster reduction programs, food and water security measures, and the provision of infrastructure services. For tractability and to reduce duplication with other components of the EACC study, the scope of this paper is limited to conventional public health adaptation activities, with a focus on malaria and diarrhea. This study also incorporates updates and revisions to the unit cost of prevention and treatment for malaria and diarrhea and updates to the exposure-response functions used to compute the relative risk for malaria.