Responding to climate change in southern Africa - the role of research.

Projections show that the effects of climate change in Africa will not be uniform over the region. The region is extremely vulnerable to the impact of climate change because of poverty, a high pre-existing disease burden, fragmented health services and existing water and food insecurity. Despite the consensus that locally relevant information is necessary to inform policy and practice related to climate change, very few studies assessing the association between climate change and health in southern Africa have been conducted. More complete information is therefore urgently needed for the southern African region to estimate the health risks from projected future changes in climate.