Project Profile: AWARD-APR
Addressing Extreme Weather Related Diarrheal Disease Risks in the Asia Pacific Region
Who?
| Principal Investigators: | Amir Sapkota, University of Maryland School of Public Health, United States |
| Partners: | Cunrui Huang, Sun Yat-sen University, China Kung-Yueh Chao, International Climate Development Institute, Chinese Taipei Arie Dipareza Syafei, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Indonesia Thi Anh Thu Dang, Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Vietnam Dang Tran Ngoc, The University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Meghnath Dhimal, Nepal Health Research Council, Nepal Veena Iyer, Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, India Sambuddha Chaudhuri, Centre for Policy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India Mohammad Shomik, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Bangladesh Hossain Zillur Rahman, Power and Participation Research Centre, Bangladesh Chuansi Gao, Lund University, Sweden Yu-Chun Wang, Chung Yuan Christian University, Chinese Taipei |
| Sponsors: | MoST, Chinese Taipei VR, Sweden NOAA, USA NSF, USA |
What?
| Full Project Title: | Addressing Extreme Weather Related Diarrheal Disease Risks in the Asia Pacific Region |
| Full Call Title: | CEH2019 |
| Website: |
Why?
| Project Objective: | Globally, diarrheal diseases are the second leading cause of death among children younger than 5 years of age, accounting for 1 in 9 child deaths. Early warnings system with seasonal to sub-seasonal (S2S) lead time is needed to reduce burden of diarrheal diseases associated with extreme weather events, and enhance community resilience against the threats of climate change. In the absence of community specific public health adaptation strategies, such extreme weather events can wreak havoc as exemplified by currently unfolding tragedy in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India that has already claimed over 300. The additional morbidity and mortality from diarrheal diseases that will likely follow this ongoing tragedy will not be known for the next several months. This underscores the urgent need for an effective early warning system to minimize the health impacts associated with extreme weather events that are projected to increase in frequency, intensity and duration. To that end, investigators from Sweden and the United States will partner with scientists from the Asia Pacific Region (Chinese Taipei, India, China, Vietnam, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Indonesia; referred to as the focus area) to establish a multinational consortium of scientists that will perform a comparative analysis of diarrheal disease risk associated with extreme weather events. Our consortium will develop a transferable solution - S2S early warnings for diarrheal disease - that will be implemented across the focus area to reduce extreme weather-related diarrheal disease burdens and improve community resilience to climate change. We are focusing on an early warning system with an S2S lead time because our public health stakeholders from the focus area have made it clear that currently available weather or climate based early warning are not adequate. Our focus areas includes countries within the Asia-Pacific Region because this region accounts for the highest burden of diarrheal disease morbidity globally and includes countries that are considered to be among the most vulnerable to the threats of climate change. |
| Call Objective: | To improve understanding of the pathways between climate, environment, and health to protect and promote human health and well-being in the face of climate challenges. Multilateral, inter- and transdisciplinary research projects will investigate where significant uncertainties exist that are barriers to action; address complex climate, ecosystem and health pathways to determine processes underlying causal links; and foster the use of scientific information and climate-related decision support tools to better inform planning and enhance resilience. |
Where?
| Regions: | Asia, Europe, Indian Ocean, North America |
| Countries: | Bangladesh, China, Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sweden, United States of America (USA), Vietnam |
When?
| Duration: | 36 |
| Call Date: | 14 March 2019 |
| Project Award Date: | 10 June 2020 |
