The link between climate change and health would be analysed through this proposed cell by forming a network of national-level laboratories, researchers, entomologists and State governments, V. M. Katoch, Director General, ICMR, said here on Monday.

Speaking to The Hindu, he said that research proposals for working on climate change would be invited from across the country. Health departments in various States would be involved as co-investigators.

“Our objective is to emphasise the need for studying climate change in detail from people’s health point of view. The ICMR laboratories at different locations will undertake focused studies like the impact of climate change on vector-borne diseases,” Dr. Katoch said. The country’s premier medical research organisation would also write to other Central Government institutions involved in vector control research.

He was here to participate in a conference on ‘Medical Arthropodology,’ organised by the Madurai-based Centre for Research in Medical Entomology (CRME), a wing of the ICMR. Dr. Katoch, who is also the Secretary of Department of Health Research (Government of India), made it clear that the studies undertaken through the Climate Change Cell would have to be necessarily translated into action at the field level for the benefit of improving public health.

At the conference’s inaugural function, S. Elango, Director of Public Health, called upon the ICMR to initiate extensive studies on the effects of climate change on public health.

“Climate changes increase vector density and it leads to more vector-borne diseases like malaria, dengue and chikungunya,” he said.