Reforming public health law to adapt to the changing climate: a case study of mosquito-borne disease management

Climate change is affecting human health in ways that exceed the scope of conventional public health law. As climate change drives new and evolving threats to human health, the public health legal framework should also evolve to address health risks that cut across socioecological systems. Shifts in precipitation and higher temperatures will change the range and scale of disease vectors and other health stressors, and the societal response to some impacts might cause unintended health problems. Current public health laws are ill-equipped to transcend jurisdictional and bureaucratic boundaries and address indirect health risks. In this Personal View, we use a case study of mosquito-borne disease control in Queensland, Australia, to illustrate how a socioecological approach to public health law reform could promote coordinated multisectoral regulation of a specific climate change-related health impact. Managing mosquito-borne disease in Queensland already necessitates laws that extend beyond traditional public health, including the incorporation of environmental impact assessments into public health legislation; the integration of health assessments into planning and environmental laws; the facilitation of interagency cross-referral and closer oversight of public health management of mosquito control; and promotion of community education and engagement. We suggest that public health adaptation aligned with a Planetary Health perspective will require additional recognition of the interconnections between social and ecological systems and more holistic conceptions of public health law.