We've already had several sneak previews of how climate change is going to be bad for our health.
From mosquito-borne diseases that jump from cows to people in East Africa, to a heatwave that killed thousands of elderly Europeans, to malaria starting to appear in the highlands of Rwanda and Swaziland in abnormally hot summers. And outbreaks of cholera as more floods hit coastal communities with poor sanitation, mixing sewage with drinking water supplies amid fetid heat.
So shouldn't climate scientists and doctors be talking to each other about how to limit the damage?
Fortunately, they've begun to.
Back in 1997, when Judy Omumbo, a research scientist at Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), heard about a major Rift Valley Fever outbreak following floods in Kenya, she headed back to her native country to find out what it was doing to humans.
People contract the viral disease - spread among livestock by mosquitoes - from contact with infected animals, and in severe cases it can result in death. Flooding encourages mosquitoes to breed in stagnant water, so unusually heavy rains can act as a warning sign.
Omumbo encountered frustration in hospitals as several hundred people lost their lives, including her colleague's father. "Being pre-informed in these situations would be really useful," she said.
"Information systems are lacking, and that's why it spread so far. It's needless, because by the time it's affecting people, many livestock are already dead."
Almost a decade later, starting in late 2006, East Africa experienced another outbreak of the disease amid floods that forced people to live side by side with their cattle. It's one example of what David Heymann, the World Health Organisation (WHO) assistant director-general for health security and environment, describes as a "preview" of the impact of climate change.
"(It) threatens the foundations of public health - safe water and sanitation, our clean air, sufficient food," he told AlertNet just before World Health Day, which this year is all about the impact of climate change on health. "At the same time we are seeing previews of what will happen when climate change is fully in place."
In the five years since WHO brought out a major report on climate change and human health, scientists and health experts have become more confident about the risks and how to tackle them. But the message hasn't spread as far as WHO would like.
"It's not understood by the general public, and it's not understood even by many of the people who are making the laws, the regulations and the policies in countries," Heymann said.
While it's still difficult to attribute one-off weather events to climate change, WHO believes there is enough evidence for governments, health professionals and individuals to take action to protect human health from the effects of global warming.
"We can do a lot today to strengthen our health systems - whether it be in vector control, in dealing with health emergencies or disasters, in things that will help to adapt our systems so they can better deal with diarrhoeal diseases, with malaria, with other things that will increase with climate change," Heymann said.
At IRI, Omumbo and her colleagues are working to improve understanding of the links between climate and communicable diseases like dengue, malaria and meningitis. They also want to show how using climate information can reduce exposure to infection and help health authorities become more effective at stopping diseases spread.
Omumbo believes climate scientists and the medical world need to cooperate more closely - not least so that climate researchers can better understand what health professionals need.
"Health workers would like definite predictions, which we can't do. But we can give them information that helps them make choices, and give it to them in a timely fashion," she said.
Recently, IRI brought together scientists, health officials, donors and aid workers for a high-level brainstorming session on how to use climate knowledge in public health.
And WHO, together with IRI and other U.N. partner agencies, is devising a global research agenda to get better estimates of health vulnerability and to identify ways of protecting health from climate change.
Omumbo identifies a particular need for support in the least developed countries where data is poor and under-resourced health ministries are low in the government pecking order.
They may get some help from a new WHO partnership scheme under which rich-country health authorities, including Britain's Health Protection Agency, are pairing up with institutions in developing states to boost their ability to cope with public health risks, including weather-sensitive diseases.
Maria Neira, director of WHO's department of public health and environment, wants health ministries in developing countries to strengthen their position so they can access international funds for adapting to climate change. Otherwise, the health sector will lose out in the competition for the limited amounts of money available.
"We need to make sure that health is very much at the centre of the climate change agenda, which has not been the case in the past," she said.
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