Learning from the Global South: How do people cope with heat?

Climate change presents tremendous challenges, especially for people in the Global South. Two international studies led by Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have investigated how the population in sub-Saharan Africa is coping with rising temperatures and the threat of infection - and what can be done about it. Reporting in the journals The Lancet Planetary Health* and Nature Medicine**, the researchers relate that women in agriculture suffer more from rising temperatures, while simple measures can improve domestic living conditions. The results are also relevant for adapting to climate change in Germany.

Heat and drought present major problems for farmers. Not only due to the fact that their plants wither and their animals die of thirst. "In sub-Saharan Africa in particular, farmers spend many hours in the fields, putting themselves at great risk," reports Dr. Martina Maggioni, who heads the Topic of Climate Change and Health at the Charité Center for Global Health. "We wanted to find out how the women and men in Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in the world, are coping with the rising temperatures." 

People adapt – if possible

An international study led by Martina Maggioni, which also included scientists from Burkina Faso, Kenya and the University of Heidelberg, provided 39 women and 39 men with wearable measuring devices. The team recorded the ambient temperature and humidity, in addition to the physical activity, body temperature and pulse of the subsistence farmers for over a year. "This allowed us to calculate how physically demanding the work was and how it impacted on their health," reports Martina Maggioni. 

It emerged that specifically women could not adapt their activities in the field well to the increasing heat. "The men could shift their work to the early morning or late evening hours or even to the cooler months. We haven't seen that with women, who often also take care of the household, putting them especially at risk from the rising temperatures." Martina Maggioni hopes that the results will now be used for early warning systems and the protection of outdoor workers. As temperatures continue to rise, however, the adaptations reach their limits in sub-Saharan Africa and food safety could be endangered. 

Simple measures delivering major impact

The second project, jointly led by Dr. Bernard Abong'o from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and Martina Maggioni, focused on the housing situation: "Here in Kenya, the rural population mostly lives in mud houses and is extremely impacted by both the rising temperatures and the mosquitoes that transmit malaria," as Bernard Abong'o stated. 

Simple, affordable measures are called for: as it was shown, simple home modifications, as for example white-painted roofs combined with the installation of insect screens on all open eaves, doors and windows greatly improved the living conditions after a relatively short period of time: Indoors, both the temperature and the number of mosquitoes dropped significantly. "Almost all households wanted to take part because the measures were cheap and effective," reports Martina Maggioni. Now they are to be extended to other parts of Kenya and even to other countries in southern Africa. 

Results also relevant for Germany

The results of the two studies are also interesting for Germany: Because temperatures are also on the rise in this country, farmers and workers need to be protected both indoors and outdoors. "Air conditioning systems are not the solution: We need affordable and sustainable measures to adapt our cities and buildings to the current environmental changes," demands Martina Maggioni. 

As Prof. Beate Kampmann, Scientific Director of the Charité Center for Global Health, emphasizes, neither climate change nor health or disease know national borders: "This is why research into global health is so crucial: We can learn from people in the Global South today, because they are already confronted with what we will be facing in the near future. While we are already very advanced in terms of diagnostics and therapy in Germany, there is still a lot to do in terms of prevention." 
 

*Eggert E et al. Physical effort during labour and behavioural adaptations in response to heat stress among subsistence farmers in Burkina Faso: a gender-specific longitudinal observational study. Lancet Planet Health 2025 Dec 22. doi: 10.1016/j.lanplh.2025.101344

**Abong’o B et al. Housing modifications for heat adaptation, thermal comfort and malaria vector control in rural African settlements. Nat Med 2025 Jan 05. doi: 10.1038/s41591-025-04104-9

About the studies
The study on behavioural adaptations to high temperatures in Burkina Faso (published in Lancet Planetary Health) was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Research Unit FOR 2936. The work was led by PD Dr. Martina Maggioni, with Edgar Eggert from the Institute of Physiology at Charité as the first and corresponding author. The support of Dr. Ali Sié, Director of the Centre de Recherche en Santé de Nouna (CRSN) in Nouna, Burkina Faso, was crucial to implementing the study.

The study on passive cooling of houses in Kenya (published in Nature Medicine) was funded by the Wellcome Trust and SeaFreight Labs. It was written by first author Dr. Bernard Abong'o (KEMRI), with Dr. Eric Ochomo (KEMRI) and Martina Maggioni as senior authors.

 

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