Our partner and WP leader, Rachel Lowe, ICREA Research Professor and Global Health Resilience (GHR) Group Leader at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), was recently interviewed by HERA (Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority) and featured on their website: https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/hera/items/852413/en

HERA is an EU body established to strengthen Europe’s ability to anticipate and respond to health emergencies, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to ensure the provision of critical medical countermeasures and enhance Europe’s readiness for future health threats.

In the interview, Rachel Lowe discusses the intricate connections between climate change and the outbreaks of climate-sensitive infectious diseases, exploring why these outbreaks are increasing and spreading to new regions, particularly in Europe. She also explains how shifting climate patterns could influence emergency preparedness and response strategies, highlighting the need for proactive, integrated approaches. She shared insights into specific climate-sensitive diseases that pose a potential threat to the EU, including dengue, chikungunya, and West Nile virus, and discussed ongoing efforts like the development of the EpiOutlook platform within the IDAlert project, which is part of the European Climate-Health Cluster. This platform aims to provide early warnings of climatic suitability for various infectious diseases in Europe. They also track the impact of climate change on these diseases in the Lancet Countdown in Europe collaboration.

As part of E4Warning, Professor Lowe also elaborated on her work in developing decision support tools like the D-MOSS (Dengue forecasting Model Satellite-based System) for dengue in endemic regions in collaboration with HR-Wallingford, as well the efforts on integrating different data sources such as citizen science initiatives like Mosquito Alert, which could enhance the monitoring and management of disease vectors across Europe, providing critical support for future public health interventions.

For more details, read the full interview on the HERA website and gain valuable insights into how E4Warning and its partners are addressing the growing challenges posed by climate-sensitive diseases in Europe.

E4Warning participated in the high-level conference “Research Perspectives on the Health Impacts of Climate Change,” organized by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) of the European Commission. This event, held in Brussels on February 19th and 20th, 2024, aimed to highlight the crucial nexus between climate change and global health issues.

Chloe Fletcher, a PhD candidate from the Global Health Resilience group at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), attended the conference. Her research focuses on developing statistical models for predicting outbreaks of climate-sensitive infectious diseases, such as dengue and leptospirosis. Fletcher presented a poster titled “A Generalized Modelling Framework for Dengue Early Warning Systems in South and Southeast Asia,” a collaborative effort involving Ramy Hoek Spaans (BSC), Sophie Belman (BSC), Chloe Fletcher (BSC), Quillon Harpham (HRW), Gina Tsarouchi (HRW), and Rachel Lowe (BSC), all contributing to the E4Warning project.

This study aims to broaden the successful application of the Dengue Forecasting Model Satellite-based System (D-MOSS), originally implemented in Vietnam, to include Sri Lanka and Malaysia. By employing a Bayesian modeling approach and contrasting it with the conventional practices of dengue outbreak monitoring in each nation, the research seeks to identify which dengue predictors remain consistent or vary across these diverse regions.

The goal is to establish a universally applicable template for developing dengue early warning systems. The D-MOSS platform, which underpins this forecasting system, is managed by HR Wallingford. A key ambition of E4Warning is to collaborate intimately with local partners to deliver actionable data visualizations, thereby enabling an informed, data-driven approach to dengue management.

You can view the summaries of other posters presented during the conference at this link.