Vontobel-CHeSS - Climate Change and Health: Challenges and Opportunities to Build Resilience in Switzerland and the Global South (CHHeSS)

The Vontobel-CCHeSS programme studies how climate change affects people’s health in Switzerland and Côte d’Ivoire, focusing on heat-related illnesses and diseases spread by ticks and mosquitoes. Researchers work with local partners to track health and environmental data, identify vulnerable groups, and understand how climate factors drive disease risks. The findings will be used to create practical tools, forecasts, and strategies that help communities adapt and protect their health in a warming world.

The research programme aims to strengthen primary care systems and protect vulnerable populations from two key climate-related threats: acute health effects of high ambient temperatures and climate-driven vector-borne diseases (VBD). Using innovative approaches that combine environmental exposure analysis with quantitative and qualitative methods, the programme aims to generate evidence on health impacts as well as the interconnected societal and ecological dynamics associated with extreme heat and changing disease patterns.

Funded by the Vontobel foundation, the programme encompasses specific research activities that address the two key climate-related threats:

Heat-related morbidity: Research related to health impacts of high ambient temperatures involves three interlinked activities. First, an assessment of the short-term effects of heat on primary care utilisation using a large Swiss dataset of general practitioner consolations  from the Institute of Primary Care of the University of Zurich (FIRE-project) is conducted. The analysis identifies vulnerable groups, relevant diagnoses and key meteorological and environmental factors. Second, building on these findings, a Swiss-wide prospective cohort is established for long-term data collection to explore the underlying mechanisms of heat-related health effects: early symptoms, well-being, risk perception and coping behaviours. To foster mutual learning on climate resilience across diverse climatic and cultural settings, heat-related health impacts and coping strategies will also be studied in Côte d’Ivoire with the Centre Suisse de Recherche Scientifiques (CSRS) through a comparative cohort analysis. Third, a transdisciplinary process engages stakeholders and citizens throughout the project to co-develop practical solutions that enhance heat stress resilience.

Climate-driven vector-borne diseases (VBD): For this key area, the CCHeSS programme quantifies the impact of climate change on the dynamics, distribution, and burden of vector-borne diseases, as well as their consequences for human health in Switzerland and Côte d’Ivoire. Drawing on over two decades of clinical and environmental surveillance data from Switzerland (in collaboration with the Federal Office of Public Health) and more than a decade of health and environmental data from Côte d’Ivoire, the programme investigates the causal mechanisms linking climatic factors to the risk of Lyme disease and Tick-borne Encephalitis Virus using dynamical models. These models will generate both short- and long-term disease risk predictions and support producing national risk maps that help identify vulnerable populations and can guide the design of prevention and control strategies, ultimately improving public health response.

To better understand the clinical burden of these diseases in Switzerland, researchers analyse two existing cohorts—FarmCoSwiss and COVCO—to characterise risk factors for tick-borne diseases. In Côte d’Ivoire, in collaboration with the CSRS, we collect and analyse new cohort data to assess the links between climatic stressors, human behaviours, and dengue risk. Together with stakeholders in both countries, we co-develop recommendations and actionable tools, including a forecasting platform, to support timely and effective public health interventions.