News

This workshop aims to establish and promote scientific capacity building in African countries through training and mentorship of young scientists and students by leading scientists to establish a platform for collaboration and networking among scientists/researchers/academia/government agencies and students.

PLOS Medicine, together with the guest editors, invites high quality submissions covering all aspects of policy relevant climate change-related health outcomes. The deadline for submissions is February 2, 2018.

A powerful new mapping tool has been developed to help rural Tanzanians reduce their exposure to tsetse flies and the deadly disease they carry. Using this platform, members of the Maasai community will be able to identify grazing and drinking areas free from populations of infected tsetse flies. This is especially critical during the dry season, when drinking holes are scarce. The fly data will also help authorities target where to spray insecticides to control the population of these biting insects.

IRI scientists and colleagues from South Africa are using satellites to detect seasonal water bodies that harbour schistosomiasis, the deadliest of the tropical neglected diseases. They have developed a new model based on data from satellites that helps identify areas likely to contain species of freshwater snails that serve as host to Schistosoma larvae.

New TDR-supported research on climate change impact has produced evidence on how to increase resilience to diseases like malaria and schistosomiasis in 7 African countries. The results of this project have been summarized in policy briefs that are being used for further discussion and planning.

In June 2016, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and the Mailman School of Public Health, both of Columbia University, hosted the Health and Climate Colloquium 2016. The PIs from the TDR IDRC research initiative on vector-borne diseases under conditions of climate change attended the event, where they presented their findings and met with other climate and health specialists. A multimedia colloquium report has now been produced. This includes videos of interviews, lectures and panels, as well as powerpoint presentations and talk summaries.

During the Climate and Health Colloquium in June 2016, hosted by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and the Mailman School of Public Health, both of Columbia University, video interviews were held with participants. Members of the TDR IDRC Research Initiative were featured in a number of these videos, including one posing the question What do you think is the biggest issue at the intersection of climate and health?

To facilitate sharing the key findings from the TDR-IDRC Research Initiative on Vector Borne Diseases in the Context of Climate Change, WHO TDR is jointly organising a three-day Research Uptake Meeting with WHO AFRO. This will take place at the end of April at the WHO Regional Office in Africa, Brazzaville, in the Republic of Congo. The Research Uptake Meeting aims to facilitate the use of research evidence by policymakers, practitioners and other partners.

A symposium on climate change and health in Africa is being held on 3 September in Rome at this year's Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology. TDR's Bernadette Ramirez is co-chairing this event that covers challenges with water-borne and vector-borne diseases.

Health practitioners, researchers and policy-makers are coming together to review how climate information can be used to improve control of infectious diseases, nutrition and meteorological disasters. The 2016 Health and Climate Colloquium is being held at the Lamont Campus of Columbia University in New York 8-10 June, and is open to all via live web streaming.

On the 21st to the 22nd of April, TDR/IDRC Project E held a community feedback meeting in Nouakchott, Mauritania. A number of stakeholders attended the meeting. Attendees included the mayor of Kaedi, Dr Jean Pierre Baptiste (WHO Representative), the General Secretary of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the General Secretary of the Ministry of Health, the President of the University of Nouakchott, the Prefect of Kaedi, researchers from the project and the Co-PI of the project in Mauritania.

World Malaria Day special feature: Climate changes are making many communities in Africa more vulnerable to malaria. New research is finding community-based solutions by merging the studies of mosquitoes, water, temperatures, land management and social sciences.

Video presentations of TDR's climate change research will be profiled at an event on air, climate and the environment called Atmospheres. The U.S. conference is part of an effort to stimulate conversations and collaborations across the natural and social sciences, humanities and the arts.

On 14 April 2016, three students from Project A, the Malaria and Bilharzia in Southern Africa (MABISA) project, graduated with their PhDs in Public Health from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa.

The Global change impact on diseases and alien species expansion workshop will take place at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), in Cape Town, South Africa, from 2-6 May 2016. Co-organized by over 10 scientific bodies, this interdisciplinary capacity building workshop will focus on infectious diseases and invasive species in the context of climate change.

The 28th Annual International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) Conference will be held in Rome, Italy, from 1-4 September 2016. At the ISEE conference, members from the WHO-TDR research projects have organised and will be contributing to a symposium on Climate change and Health in Africa: challenges with water-related and vector-borne diseases.

This news item aims to share a particularly relevant recent publication from WHO, Lessons learned on health adaptation to climate variability and change (experiences across low and middle income countries) by Kristie Ebi and Mariam Otmani del Barrio. This report looks closely at health adaptation projects with the goal of identifying lessons learned and good practice examples, as well as the potential for scaling up projects and any key barriers and challenges to scaling up.

Climate changes are making Côte d'Ivoire more vulnerable to malaria and schistosomiasis. New research is finding community-based solutions by merging the studies of mosquitoes, water, temperatures, land management and social sciences.

Coinciding with the Conference of the Parties in Paris (COP21), Research group E, conducting research on Vulnerability and resilience to malaria and schistosomiasis in the northern and southern fringes of the Sahelian belt in the context of climate change, released a video highlighting their work in Côte d'Ivoire.

An informative new video has been released by Project C, headed by Professor Paul Gwakisa, on the research they are conducting in Tanzania. The release of this video coincides with the Conference of the Parties currently underway in Paris (COP21).

An innovative research approach is underway in Tanzania that may help communities adapt to the devastating effects of climate change. Unexpected weather patterns, such as increasing temperatures, late rainfall onset and droughts are affecting livelihoods, food security and health.

Work to identify ways that African countries can prepare for the impacts of environmental and climate change is creating new approaches that bring multiple disciplines together. Researchers in geoinformatics, meteorology, entomology and infectious diseases came together recently in Geneva to review progress of a major project helping communities build resilience against diseases like malaria and schistosomiasis.

TDR is hosting a Scientific Forum and Capacity Building Workshop in Geneva from 14-16 July 2015. The Scientific Forum is organised in collaboration with the International Development Research Centre - Canada (IDRC) and Centre Suisse de Recherche Scientifiques in Ivory Coast. The Capacity Building Workshop is hosted in collaboration with the IDRC. The Forum and Workshop are part of the TDR/IDRC research initiative on Population Health Vulnerabilities to Vector-Borne Diseases.

WHO/TDR is launching a new site on the programme "Population Health Vulnerabilities to Vector-Borne Diseases: Increasing Resilience Under Climate Change Conditions in Africa". This is a joint TDR/IDRC initative. The new website will complement the private community platform that is currently supporting work on the project. The soft launch takes place in Geneva in mid-July at a meeting that brings together programme participants from across Africa.

One of the students from Project A, Ezra Mutegeki, has just completed his knowledge, attitudes and practices studies. His focus was on malaria and he was working with women in a South African village. The study examined what women living in the Mgedula Village of Jozini in the uMkhanyakude District know about malaria as well as their attitudes and behaviours related to the disease.

East of Eldoret, along the Rift Valley in Kenya, is Baringo county, a dryland area where slight changes in climate exacerbate poverty. Poor communities reliant on crops and livestock can see their livelihoods and food security wrecked by unexpected weather patterns. Rains may increase the numbers of mosquitoes that carry malaria and increase the incidence of Rift Valley fever that can make both people and cattle very sick.

Five research projects have been approved for funding to contribute to reducing health vulnerabilities and increasing resilience against vector-borne disease risks under climate change conditions in Africa. Climate change is adding new pressures throughout the continent on populations already suffering from poverty, food insecurity, ecological and social vulnerabilities. The research programme is taking a multi-pronged approach to explore how to improve disease control strategies and tools, and increase the capacity to generate, interpret, and use new knowledge to inform policies and practices.

More than 70 applications representing 24 countries throughout the African continent were received at TDR for the new grant on climate change in Africa. Ten teams have been selected to participate in a proposal development workshop, to be held in Accra, Ghana, from 5-7 November 2012. From this, up to 8 teams will be identified and funded for 3 years.