Global health. The current scenario and future perspectives

123 Source: Palmeiro-Silva, Cifuentes, Cortés, Olivares & Silva, 2020. One direct effect is an increase in ambient temperature, which can lead to extreme heat events and heatwaves. These phenomena affect people’s well-being and health by causing headaches, excessive sweating, dehydration, heat exhaustion and even heatstroke, which can result in hospitalization or death. Generally, the most vulnerable individuals, like young children, older adults, people with underlying illnesses or taking certain medications and outdoor workers exposed to the sun, tend to experience these types of symptoms and conditions to a greater extent. Vulnerabilities to heat can be both physiological and social. Evidence has shown that people with low income, living in areas with fewer green spaces and higher social insecurity, tend to be more impacted (Kim et al., 2020). The analysis of historical information on days of extreme and heatwaves shows that hot days and nights as well as heatwave events have increased worldwide (IPCC, 2022). Moreover, it has been evidenced that these events are associated with increased mortality. For example, in Europe in 2003 and in Russia in 2010, more than 70,000 deaths occurred due to these events (Shaposhnikov et al., 2014; World Health Organization, 2022). Climate projections suggest an increase in the number of these events (IPCC, 2022), which poses a risk to population health and could put pressure on healthcare systems to act quickly and timely.