Climate change is reshaping the global disease burden, amplifying threats from vector-borne and waterborne diseases, heat-related illnesses, food insecurity, and environmental degradation. This symposium explores the urgent need for climate-resilient health systems and proactive, equity-oriented public health responses that integrate environmental and health agendas.
Speakers
Dr Rohaida Ismail (Ministry of Health, Malaysia) leads the Environmental Health Research Centre at the Institute for Medical Research. A Public Health Medicine Specialist with expertise in environmental health and climate change, she contributes to Malaysia’s national strategies on climate adaptation, children’s environmental health, and human biomonitoring.
Dr Anna Thorson (WHO-TDR / The Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases) is Head of the Research Capacity Strengthening Unit at TDR, WHO, and Professor of Global Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet. With extensive experience in implementation research, capacity building, and digital health, she will highlight global research strategies for addressing climate-sensitive infectious diseases and building resilient systems through interdisciplinary collaboration.
Professor Dr Rafdzah Ahmad Zaki (Universiti Malaya, Malaysia) is a distinguished Public Health Medicine Specialist with experience in Evidence-Based Medicine, infectious disease modelling and implementation science. Her leadership in research and public health education enables her to foster collaborations across disciplines and sectors to tackle the multifaceted impacts of climate change on health, building resilience in health systems by integrating expertise from epidemiology, environmental science, policy, and technology.
Dr Dang Thi Anh Thu (Hue University, Vietnam) is the Vice-Dean of Public Health Faculty and Vice-Director of Hue University’s Institute for Community Health Research. She has extensive experience working with international researchers to implement studies on various climate change-related public health threats. Her research focuses on environmental, community, and occupational health as well as health risk assessment.
Moderator
Professor Dr Tin Tin Su (Monash University, Malaysia) is a public health physician and researcher with over 20 years of experience, dedicated to improving population health through community engagement, social epidemiology, and implementation science. She is the Director of the South East Asia Community Observatory (SEACO) Health & Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) and leads major research initiatives on climate change and health, including the eHealth at SEACO (CHIMES) project and the Wellcome Trust-funded study on heat and health in Southeast Asia. Professor Su also directs Monash University’s Regional Hub for Asia Climate Change and Health (REACH) and has held leadership roles in the International Health Literacy Association (IHLA) and Asia Health Literacy Association (AHLA). Her research focuses on climate change, digital health, health literacy, community-based interventions, and implementation science.
This session underscores the importance of integrating climate and health policy, strengthening research and capacity, and ensuring that vulnerable populations are not left behind in the face of a warming world.