Research on climate change, health inequities, and migration in the Caribbean

摘要

On Sept 18, 2017, a few days after Hurricane Irma caused extensive damage to the Caribbean, Hurricane Maria—another category five hurricane—badly hit many islands in the region. Among them was Dominica, a small island developing state (SIDS) of the Caribbean community, located in the Windward Islands between Guadeloupe in the north and Martinique in the south. Dominica was devastated after the passage of Hurricane Maria with at least 30 deaths out of a population of 72?000, and 60% of houses were either gone (blown into the sea or totally scattered in pieces across the island) or severely damaged.1 Other Caribbean SIDSs, such as Barbuda, were severely affected where the entire population was evacuated to Antigua following the devastation of the island by Hurricane Irma. In light of these effects, we present in this Comment arguments on the necessity for the public health research community to focus more on Caribbean SIDSs in the context of climate change and health inequities.