Last year, the World Health Organization identified climate change as humanity’s single biggest health threat. Marking Universal Health Coverage Day on the heels of the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 27, serves as an urgent reminder that health and climate are fully entwined and that empowering and equipping health workers to combat the consequences of climate change is essential to achieving universal health coverage.
Where do we start?
Though no one’s health is safe on a rapidly heating planet, some communities are more dramatically affected. Regions particularly vulnerable to climate-related health threats are also home to some of the world’s most underserved populations, as well as fragile and overburdened health systems. We need to support health workers in these regions first.
One of the most significant examples of health threats directly linked to climate is the rise of mosquito-borne illness due to increasing temperatures around the world, which could put 49.1% of the world’s population at risk of insect-transmitted viruses by 2050. When Brazil was hit with an outbreak of Zika virus in 2015, its community health workers, or CHWs, were essential to the Zika response. This workforce of over 286,000 is core to the country’s health system, delivering care to 60% of the population.
CHWs provide primary health services, make house visits, deliver health education, and address social determinants of health, such as access to transportation and nutritional services which are often stubborn barriers to health in many communities. Because CHWs serve the communities that they live in, they are trusted by their patients.
However, despite having one of the most formalized CHW programs in the world and making great strides in access to care, Brazil has struggled to provide its health workforce with adequate resources, as evidenced by its COVID-19 response.
With support from Johnson & Johnson Foundation, the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation — also called the Center — works with several organizations to advocate for Brazilian CHWs and strengthen the health system. CONACS, a Brazilian organization representing hundreds of thousands of CHWs across the country, ensures the cadre is connected and integrated into the health system. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement works with Hospital Sírio-Libanês to increase health workers’ joy and resilience.
The Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein developed a course for nurses to learn community-, family- and people-oriented care at no cost to Brazilian nursing professionals and students. And the Institute for Research and Support to Social Development is helping health care professionals, especially CHWs, to fight misinformation and follow science-based protocols. For CHWs to be an effective barrier against increasingly poor health outcomes that result from climate change, they must be well-resourced and integrated into health systems through similar programs.
Similar to the Zika outbreak in Brazil, the effects of climate change are intensifying the threat of other flaviviruses such as dengue. In Asia, which carries 70% of the disease burden, the increasingly warmer tropical climate makes it a breeding ground for the mosquitoes that carry the illness. This is an acute problem in places such as Singapore, where the country is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the world, and this year experienced a dengue emergency. The potential for increased flavivirus prevalence as the planet warms is why Johnson & Johnson launched the J&J Satellite Center for Global Health Discovery at Singapore’s Duke-NUS Medical School.
New innovations in disease intervention and access to care are essential to strengthen health systems and safeguard communities against these threats. Further, more accessible interventions mean less disease burden, alleviating pressure on health systems and health workers. That’s why Johnson & Johnson is committed to making its medicines more widely available and accessible to low- and middle-income countries. This deep history of championing global health equity earned Johnson & Johnson the number two spot in the recently announced Access to Medicine Index. Consistently ranking in the top three on this influential biennial Index for more than a decade underscores the company’s commitment to not only developing lifesaving treatments and preventative therapeutics but also ensuring that they reach the communities that need them.
The impacts of climate change on human health are also widespread throughout the United States. For example, the southeastern region of the U.S. has also experienced more prolonged and more frequent heat waves in recent years. In Atlanta, heat-related health complications have put pressure on the city’s health system. Projections suggest that Atlanta will experience at least 35 days of unhealthy ozone levels each summer. Similar to other southeastern cities, Atlanta is at significant risk for extreme weather events, such as floods, which can limit a person’s ability to access care.
The impacts of climate change disproportionately harm Black and Brown communities that are already vulnerable due to a range of social, economic, historical, and political factors. As the EPA’s Social Vulnerability Report points out, Black Americans are 34% more likely to live in areas with the highest projected increases in childhood asthma diagnoses and 40% more likely to live in areas with the highest projected increases in mortality rates due to climate-driven changes in extreme temperatures.
“Climate change is here and now. And people face double jeopardy from climate change and poor health,” says Dr. Tracey L. Henry, associate professor of medicine at Emory University and a 2022 Climate and Health Equity Fellow, a program run by the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health and supported by Johnson & Johnson.
Support health workers first
The key solution to safeguard communities against climate-related health threats is to build climate-resilient health systems — and health workers are the backbone of those systems. As the WHO outlined, one of the top 10 ways countries can improve their ability to adapt to climate change is by supporting their health workforce with training, education, and mentoring on the health impacts of climate change.
Increasing the resilience and capabilities of health systems to improve equitable access to health care is a core priority embedded in Johnson & Johnson’s environmental, social, and governance — ESG — strategy. At the center, we are committed to solving the challenges health workers face, such as workforce shortages and burnout. We are also committed to delivering what they need, such as fair compensation and continuing education.
As we recommit ourselves to the goal of achieving UHC, let’s work together to ensure our health systems can withstand the additional burdens placed upon them by climate change by properly equipping our frontline health workers — especially the CHWs who serve closest to those most directly affected.
Lauren Moore is the vice president of global community impact at Johnson & Johnson.
