**3. Conclusion**

Apparently, the discourse on climate change and public health does not seemingly embody health security. However, the above view is only tenable when health security is given a narrow or circumscribed definition and approached from a climate sceptical stance. But health security is concerned with all actions and systems that portend good health and wellbeing of citizens now and in the future. Thus, responding to the nascent health challenges of climate change within the framework of public health should be rightly conceived as crucial to realising the broad goals of health security. After all, health security as generally acknowledged is about actions and activities that are needed whether proactively or otherwise in order to curtail or minimise the impact or deleterious effects of acute or serious health events. In its conventional sense, health security is approached from a global perspective that privileges concerted action at different levels. In the same vein, climate change issues have been approached largely from a global perspective and have been perceived as portending acute public health challenges globally. However, while global efforts remain paramount, actions at regional and sub-regional levels can be coordinated in the case of climate change to build into the global health security agenda.

As part of the effort at adaptation and strengthening health security, public health should actively and robustly link people to needed and appropriate health service and support in the event of adverse weather events. Therefore, there is need for a strong and integrated infrastructure for delivering health service and interventions as part and parcel of the response to climate change at the community level. As has been argued, "climate change, an environmental health hazard of unprecedented scale and complexity, necessitates health professionals developing new ways of thinking, communicating, and acting" ([35] p. 403).

Besides the recent global challenge of COVID-19, climate change has been in the forefront of realistic efforts towards health security in the past three decades. Thus, climate change and its responses should be seen as lying squarely within the rubric of health security. Apparently, there can be no real or sustainable health security especially in developing regions of the world without accounting for climate change. Putting climate change within a responsive and robust public health system logically responds to the glaring need for health security in almost the same way as a global compact on COVID-19 and its vaccines.

A good theoretical landing in responding to the health challenges of climate change is through adopting the systems theory. Systems thinking in this regard embodies multi-disciplinary and linkage propensity in the sense that it is oriented to drawing a nexus between disciplines. Therefore, in public health and climate change the systems approach become relevant in ensuring linkages and manifold nexus between disciplines that breeds concerted action. Without doubt, climate change is the area where multi-disciplinary approaches are needed in order to fully embody and respond to its various impacts and manifestations. Systems thinking also privileges diverse impacts and manifestations. It thus enables the understanding and acceptance of the impacts of both climate change and health on other spheres of the social system.

In spite of accelerating research on climate change in the last few decades, there is still no contesting the need for more research efforts especially in pinpointing specific and directional interaction between climate change and health or diseases especially in the case of new and re-emerging infectious diseases in Africa. In other words, nothing would be better than an evidence-based response to climate change i.e., the use of research and experience of epidemiology and disease patterns over the years in designing and informing climate change response in the area of public health in the continent. Despite the above, there is no gainsaying the need for radicalization of the public health systems in Africa and repositioning them towards innovative and concerted response to real, emerging and even anticipated impacts of climate change on health. These would entail not only fundamental mainstreaming of climate change into public health but equally building individual and community resilience through programmed interventions; tackling extensive health inequities or disparities especially those generated by or associated with poverty as well as reforming health institutions and infrastructure to embody robust innovations and concerted response to climate change especially in this era of global pandemic and beyond.
