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Climate change increases the suitability of environments to transmit water/air/food/vector-borne or zoonotic diseases. Despite public health/medical advances to reduce transmission, population growth in wildlife areas, unplanned urbanization, and globalization fuel emerging/re-emerging diseases and global spread. Preventing and controlling such diseases and challenging viral hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola, requires a transdisciplinary approach with surveillance, early detection/response, vector control, education, and safe care. With the World Health Organization (WHO) Technical Science for Health Network (Téchne), we've designed an Infectious Diseases Treatment Module (IDTM) to be rapidly/easily deployed, transported, expanded, self-contained/sufficient irrespective of pathogen/mode of transmission. The 1st prototype will be evaluated in Spring 2023. We need support to refine the design and further evaluate in the field (Guinea, Sierra Leone, DRC, Uganda).

Environ 3,14 milliards de personnes souffrent de malnutrition dans le monde. Malgré son développement économique ces dernières décennies, le Cameroun a fait peu de progrès dans la réduction de la malnutrition. Le triple fardeau de la malnutrition au Cameroun est souligné par la persistance de taux élevés de retard de croissance et d'émaciation (29%), de carences multiples en micronutriments (57%), et d'un fardeau croissant de surpoids dans les zones urbaines (11 %). On estime que les maladies non transmissibles liées à l'alimentation représentent désormais 30% du total des décès. Près de la moitié des Camerounais (48%) n'ont pas les moyens d'avoir un régime alimentaire répondant à leurs besoins nutritionnels. Cependant, l'accroissement des revenus, l'augmentation de la production et l'amélioration de la qualité des aliments n'aboutissent pas nécessairement à une réduction de la malnutrition. Viser une meilleure nutrition ne suffit pas, mais des éléments probants montrent qu'une éducation nutritionnelle renforce considérablement l'effet d'une meilleure nutrition dans la lutte contre la malnutrition.

Food insecurity and malnutrition especially, protein-energy, micronutrient, vitamin A, iron, iodine, folate, vitamin B12 and zinc deficiencies are prevalent in rural communities in Kenya. Severely affected are pregnant women and children under the age of 5 years. Though unstainable, provision of nutrient supplements is embraced in Kenya. In 2020, 4.5 million children aged 6 to 59 months received doses of vitamin A supplement, and over 2.9 million pregnant women were given iron and folic acid doses. Climate change has negatively impacted both terrestrial and marine production of nutritious food. There is a gap and acute demand for (1) climate resilient and equitable food production and value addition systems, (2) affordable nutritious foods as alternatives to supplements. An equitable aquaculture innovation for increased production and consumption of fish, rice, vegetables, seaweeds is a sustainable diet-based solution to malnutrition that can have more impact on rural communities.

Climate change effects on maternal and neonatal health caused by heat stress, and air pollution can be detrimental in the immediate and long term. Heat exposure has been associated with the risk of low birth weight, preterm, and stillbirths. Dehydration in pregnant women can trigger the early onset of, as well as prolonged labour. Heat stress can lead to reduced blood flow and oxygen to the placenta, affecting fetal growth, it can increase blood pressure and pre-eclampsia in pregnancy, and heighten the risk of postpartum depression and posttraumatic disorder. Kenya's pre-term birth rate is 12 per every 100 live births, equaling that of sub-Saharan Africa at 12%. Kenya aims to reduce its stillbirth rate from 19.7 per 1000 births to 12 per 1000 births by 2030.

The proposed intervention will address the problem of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases among street vendors and other populations vulnerable to air pollution. The respiratory and cardiovascular health effects of air pollution exposure is well documented in the epidemiological literature including from occupational groups exposed to air pollution. We have also observed these adverse health effects among the street vendor population in Accra (Amegah et al. JESEE 2022). Interventions for addressing air pollution exposure centers around advising individuals to limit outdoor activity and avoid highly polluted areas. Among occupational groups this intervention is not feasible because these occupations are usually the only source of livelihood for the workers and cannot heed the advice. There is therefore the urgent need to test nutrition interventions to ascertain whether they can mitigate the effects of air pollution exposure to help safeguard the health of vulnerable populations.

Undernutrition and household food insecurity remain a challenge in Rwanda. Despite the recent nationally improved living conditions, over 18% population experiences chronic food insecurity. Most food-insecure households have limited or no access to sufficient, nutritious food needed to live a healthy life leading to various types of malnutrition and increased risk of illnesses. Currently, 33.1% of children under 5 years are stunted, with 6.7% suffering from acute malnutrition. Adolescent mothers and their children are particularly more vulnerable with food and financial needs being their top priorities, where 21% of teenage girls have children. In sub-Saharan Africa, firstborn children of girls under 18 have a 33% higher risk of stunting. Over 86% of Rwandans rely on subsistence farming, but the majority face chronic food insecurity due to water scarcity and droughts, soil infertility, lack of fertilizer and seeds, and inadequate agricultural support programs.

Access to clean and safe water is a major issue worldwide. UNICEF reports that daily, over 700 children under 5 die from water-borne diseases linked to inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene. Africa is especially impacted, with 1 in 3 citizens facing water scarcity. Many people in sub-Saharan Africa lack basic drinking water, often having to travel for 30 minutes to access it. Hand Pump boreholes have become crucial for rural water supply in Africa, serving 25% of the population but still, a significant gap remains. Estimations by the Rural Water Supply Network show that annually 60,000 hand pumps are installed but around 40% are not working. Broken hand pumps are often abandoned, worsening water access and representing a loss of over $1.2 billion in investment in the last 20 years, according to the World Bank. Our solution aims to address this problem through an integrated approach to improve water access.

In Pakistan, about 60% of urban and 40% to 100% of rural water sources are unfit for consumption. Studies have reported high contamination of water samples with total coliforms and E. coli. This results in about 100 million diarrheal cases, and 2.5 million deaths due to endemic diarrheal disease annually. The situation gets worse in disasters which often leave thousands of affected people, especially women and children in need of water and sanitation support. The floods of 2022 have not only exacerbated diarrheal diseases but have raised severe acute malnutrition at alarming levels in the flood-affected areas. UNICEF has reported that more than 1 in 9 children under five admitted to health facilities in Sindh and Baluchistan were found to be severely acutely malnourished. So, innovative approaches for the provision of safe drinking water are required to be tested for their impact on health and cost-effectiveness for the prevention from diarrhea and wasting.

According to the Health Epidemiological Surveillance System, people in Comuna 13 in Cali have the highest hospitalization rates in the city related to vector borne diseases such as Dengue, Zika and Chikunguña and suffer from respiratory diseases, product of the contamination of the water in the wetlands of “Charco Azul” and “El Pondaje” in the region. This contamination results from wastewater dumping, urban growth, unawareness and inadequate solid waste management. Contaminated water hosts mosquitoes that transmit diseases and emits methane gases and odors that harm the olfactory mucosa, while contact can cause scabies and ringworm in the skin as well as eye infection and irritation. Climate change induces a transformation in the hydrology and temperature of the wetland that reduces it's capacity to purify air and generates disservices such as the production of nocive gases that deepens the impact of contamination and further affects human health.

Climate change heavily affects the water cycle through increasing frequency, severity of floods and droughts and increasing rainfall variability. Vibrio cholerae, the bacteria that causes cholera, is not only a threat during floods, but also thrives during periods with little rain and hot temperatures. Transferred via person-to-person contact, contaminated water and food. During times of low precipitation and high temperatures, the concentration of the bacteria in the water increases, making the disease more dangerous. Okoyong is a village in Manyu division with no affordable drinking water source. The villagers depend on springs for drinking water, which dry off during the dry season with extreme high temperatures. In Cameroon and Southwest in particular, Cholera outbreak was declared by health authorities on 29 October 2021 and has been ongoing since then.