Diseases linked to climate change to be monitored

China plans to improve early warning systems for climate-sensitive diseases and strengthen the medical system's resilience and emergency response ability to extreme climate events as part of efforts to tackle climate change, which an action plan released on Tuesday dubbed the most complicated public health problem. By next year, China will strengthen construction of a monitoring system for diseases that are sensitive to climate change and develop methods for assessing climate change's effects on health, according to the document, which was jointly released by the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration and 12 other government departments. "Enhancing health adaptation and risk prevention capabilities against climate change is a top priority," it said in a statement explaining the document. To mitigate the effects of climate change, Wang suggested disease control and meteorology authorities jointly release alerts for health hazards during extreme weather events, and also guide the public to learn protection measures and improve their health literacy.