The Caribbean is recognized as one of the most climatesensitive and disaster-prone regions in the world, with Caribbean small island developing States (SIDS) at the frontline in terms of climate impacts on human health. The development of climate-informed early warning systems for health is a priority need. Until 2017, tailored operational climate early warning information for health practitioners was largely not available.

Since 2009–2010, the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) has been operationally producing climate monitoring and climate forecast information for the public good. This freely available climate early warning information has been produced every month and was potentially useful to the health sector, as it provided advisories on climate extremes such as drought, extreme rainfall and heatwaves, which are becoming increasingly intense in a changing climate. In a 2017 PAHO Country Survey on Health and Climate Change, Caribbean health professionals identified and rated as “extremely important” or “important” many topics about which the CIMH provided climate monitoring and forecasting and collaborated across sectors. These themes included vector-borne diseases, weather and emergencies, food security/safety, waterborne diseases and heat-related illness, among others. The CIMH seized the opportunity to use its suite of monitoring and forecast information as a basis for providing a more tailored service to the Caribbean health sector on climate-sensitive diseases. Since 2017, the RCC-Caribbean has worked with regional health partners at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and PAHO to prepare and disseminate messages on the expected seasonal impacts of climate conditions on the incidence of some climate-sensitive diseases. The quarterly Caribbean Health Climatic Bulletin (HCB)146 has been jointly authored and disseminated by CIMH, CARPHA and PAHO since May 2017 and is the Caribbean’s premier integrated climate-health early warning product.

The Caribbean HCB is a tool that has the potential to help health practitioners in the region to reduce climate-related health risks. It provides them with the seasonal information required to identify and prepare for upcoming favourable or unfavourable climate conditions, three months in advance. Use of this information can help to inform strategic and operational decisions related to the management of diseases like dengue, which is estimated to cost the Caribbean over USD 300 million annually.147 CIMH, CARPHA and PAHO continue to work with international research partners on the development of models in an effort to provide integrated climate-health advisories in the HCB in the future. This will lead to further improved, climate-smart health decisionmaking in Caribbean SIDS.

The Caribbean Health Climatic Bulletin is the premier climate early warning information product in the region, providing health practitioners with information to prepare for upcoming climate conditions and risks, three months in advance.