Vol. 16 No. 2 (2024): Arch Pub Health
Review

Building resilience to cope with heat waves and extreme weather events in the Republic of North Macedonia

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  • Mihail Kochubovski
Mihail Kochubovski
Faculty of Medicine, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, North Macedonia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3889/aph.2024.6139

Published 2024-11-25

Keywords

  • climate change,
  • heat wave,
  • extreme weater

How to Cite

1.
Kochubovski M. Building resilience to cope with heat waves and extreme weather events in the Republic of North Macedonia. Arch Pub Health [Internet]. 2024 Nov. 25 [cited 2024 Dec. 18];16(2). Available from: https://id-press.eu/aph/article/view/6139

Copyright (c) 2024 Mihail Kochubovski

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

High ambient temperatures have a significant impact on society and population health, including a rise in morbidity and mortality. Episodes of heat lasting for several days are often referred to as heat waves and can be associated with tens of thousands of premature deaths. In the Republic of North Macedonia, the most striking weather anomaly was in 2007, when the national government declared a nationwide heat-wave emergency. The content of this inspirational example outlines a wide range of coordinated actions at community and system levels to adapt, anticipate and manage the many problems caused by heat waves. The
example shows the need of intersectional action to build adaptive, absorptive, anticipatory and transformative resilience capacity in both communities and institutions in order to effectively fight against the harmful health effects of heat waves. There were several heat waves in the country during 2007-2023 and public health activities to prevent and minimize adverse health effects.

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