Researchers from UC Santa Barbara, UC San Francisco, and the City University of New York have linked decades of climate and weather data to a multinational cohort of 2.2 million people living with or at risk for HIV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study, published in GeoHealth and supported by the National Institutes of Health, highlights how EWEs affect HIV treatment and public health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople living with HIV are an especially vulnerable population, many of whom live in areas that are historically and\/or increasingly prone to severe weather events,\u201d said UCSB geographer Frank Davenport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The research focused on 777 HIV clinics in the NIH-funded IeDEA network, tracking drought exposure from 1981 to 2023 and flood exposure from 2006 to 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lead author Sophia Arabadjis explained, \u201cBut when you have disruptions like floods and droughts, where people may not have access to the right drugs, care or basic food\/water supplies, the viral load begins to build in these patients.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Droughts typically have indirect effects, increasing food insecurity and prompting migration or transactional work that can disrupt treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Floods often cause immediate damage to infrastructure, displacing patients and making clinic access difficult, while also raising the risk of waterborne or mosquito-borne diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Southern Africa\u2019s IeDEA sites are currently most exposed to both drought and flood risks. Arabadjis emphasized that \u201cpinpointing which clinics are at-risk helps us target resources and mitigation efforts across the network.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the study does not examine patient-specific outcomes, it provides a foundational record for future research and could inform policies to protect HIV patients during extreme weather events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
People living with HIV are particularly at risk during extreme weather events (EWEs) such as floods, droughts, hurricanes, and blizzards, which can disrupt access to care and worsen health outcomes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000104162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[151,69],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-2000104160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-editors-choice","tag-homehighlights","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":{"id":2000104162,"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bg.png","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/png","width":1024,"height":576,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bg.png","width":150,"height":84},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bg.png","width":300,"height":169},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bg.png","width":768,"height":432},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bg.png","width":1024,"height":576},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bg.png","width":1024,"height":576}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000104160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000104160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000104160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000104163,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000104160\/revisions\/2000104163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000104162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000104160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000104160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000104160"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=2000104160"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=2000104160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}