Countries are falling behind on preparing for climate change’s health impact, WHO finds

The WHO just released a report that looked at how well countries are preparing for the health effects of climate change, and found that few are making progress. Analyzing data from 101 countries, the report says that half have strategies in place, and many of the countries cited finances as being the major challenge to implementing national plans. Only 12 countries reported having a national curriculum to train its health force on the effects of climate change, while 27 countries have plans in development. At the same time, only a quarter of the countries assessed looked at how their countries would be affected by vector-borne, water-, or food-borne diseases as a result of climate change.

Correction: Yesterday's item on a lactose-free diet for graft-versus-host disease incorrectly identified the type of molecule lactose is. Thanks to those of you who wrote in to point out that lactose is a sugar.