Citation:
DHAI, A. Failing to protect the climate could violate international law. SAJBL [online]. 2025, vol.18, n.2 [cited  2025-09-28], pp.36-36. Available from: <http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1999-76392025000200001&lng=en&nrm=iso>. ISSN 1999-7639.

Awareness of the associations between climate change, related extreme weather events and disease prevention and care outcomes is growing in momentum. Extreme weather events resulting from climate change impact disease-affected regions and populations, in particular in the resource-poor parts of the world. Eastern and southern Africa, regions at elevated risk for precipitation extremes, carry >54% of the global burden of people living with HIV. These regions are experiencing annual droughts and/or rainfalls of increasing duration and intensity. There is growing evidence in sub-Saharan Africa of the link between extreme weather events and HIV acquisition risks, and it has been shown that drought and flooding are associated with lower antiretroviral therapy adherence and poorer HIV clinical outcomes among people living with HIV.