Framework for Primary Prevention of Emerging Climate-Sensitive Diseases through the Lens of Planetary Health: The Case of Lyme Disease in Canada and Quebec

Abstract

This article contextualizes climate change and its impact on population health by highlighting the emergence of climate-sensitive infectious diseases. Using Lyme disease in Quebec as an example, it aims to achieve two objectives. First, the article demonstrates that the Quebec, and even Canadian, healthcare system is deficient regarding accessibility to treatment for this disease. Consequently, it emphasizes the need to optimize population health by proposing the enhancement of this pathology's preventive dimension by defining an intervention framework focused on planetary health. To this end, we defined a methodological approach based on a narrative review and the mobilization of some media sources. The results of this review suggest that the controversies surrounding diagnoses and treatments justify the inherent difficulties in accessing care. This, in turn, demonstrates the limitations of the healthcare system in Canada particularly in Quebec. The article highlights the necessity of strengthening primary prevention strategies by mobilizing planetary health as the main preventive framework. Thus, the results of the narrative review have allowed us to define preventive intervention strategies based on planetary health. These defined strategies form the proposed preventive framework to guide the primary prevention of climate-related diseases, particularly Lyme disease. These include ecosystem preservation, combating climate change, community education and awareness, adoption of preventive behaviors, sustainable agriculture and biodiversity, and environmental monitoring.