Abstract
A national quantitative assessment of the current vulnerability of the Brazilian population to the health impacts of climate change was undertaken with the support of the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology. A conceptual framework of vulnerability in the health sector, according to a modified general ‘exposure–response’ model, was adopted (Confalonieri 2003). For the quantification of vulnerability, a new methodology was used to develop a synthetic (composite) general vulnerability index from averages of specific indices of vulnerability in 3 areas: socio-economic, epidemiological and climatological. We found that the greatest influence on the general vulnerability index (of the most vulnerable states) was from the socio-economic vulnerability index. The approach used also demonstrated that the northeast is the most vulnerable Brazilian region to the health impacts of a changing climate.