image: Joacim Rocklöv, professor at University of Heidelberg, Germany, and guesting professor at Umeå University, Sweden view more
Credit: Mattias Pettersson
IDAlert aims to tackle the emergence and transmission of zoonotic pathogens by developing novel indicators, innovative early warning systems and efficient tools for decision-makers, and by evaluating adaptation and mitigation strategies to build a Europe more resilient to emerging health threats.
As our planet heats up due to climate change, outbreaks of zoonotic diseases – diseases that spread from animals to humans – are increasing and expanding to new parts of the world, in particular Europe. Warmer temperatures, more variable rainfall, and the loss of biodiversity, influence the survival and spread of zoonotic pathogens, and the reproduction and geographic location of their vectors, such as mosquitoes or ticks.
Past and recent health crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have shown there is a need for stronger and more inclusive preparedness and responsiveness to epidemic-prone pathogens at the EU and global level. IDAlert aims to tackle this challenge by developing a range of decision-support tools and systems to enable decision-makers to act on time with improved responses.
“The project has chosen an innovative co-creation, participatory, and citizen science approach, involving stakeholders from the start to integrate needs and address gaps, and a One Health perspective, recognising the close connection between humans, animals, and the environment, and the increase in infectious diseases,” says Joacim Röcklov, IDAlert Project Coordinator, Umeå University (Sweden).
IDAlert will develop new climate and health indicators (i.e. for viruses circulating among wild birds and mosquitoes such as the West Nile Virus) and monitoring mechanisms, incorporate an inequality lens, and inform policy development across sectors, setting a new standard in support of policy and decision-making. Surveillance, early warning, and response systems will also be developed and made accessible through a user interface that allows for easy visualisation and exploration of data and results, making it simpler to undertake effective measures and contain outbreaks.
“I am thrilled to be a part of the initiative, I am confident that our efforts in testing newer tools for vector surveillance and pathogen detection will eventually help save lives in Europe and elsewhere,” says Dr Mohammad Shafiul Alam, Scientist at icddr,b (formerly International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh).
IDAlert will assess the costs, effectiveness, benefits and policy viability of adaptation measures and strategies to improve the climate resilience of health systems in Europe. Finally, the project will look at socio-economic aspects, investigating the emergence, transmission, and spread of zoonotic pathogens and consequences of climate and health policies on different socio-demographic, high-risk, and hard-to-reach groups, and how policy can help reduce these impacts.
The validity of the tools and methods developed in the project will be demonstrated in key hotspot sites in Spain, The Netherlands, Greece, Sweden, and Bangladesh, which are experiencing rapid urban transformation and climate-induced disease threats. The project will maximise its reach and build on its ties with the European Climate and Health Observatory, the European Climate Adaptation Platform Climate-ADAPT, and the Lancet Countdown in Europe to guarantee long-term sustainability, policy impact and uptake.
Through its activities and objectives, IDAlert will ultimately contribute to more robust climate policies, guide authorities in public health, veterinary and environmental services, and safeguard the populations in Europe from the transmission and emergence of infectious pathogens due to climate change.
About IDAlert
IDAlert – Infectious Disease decision-support tools and Alert systems to build climate Resilience to emerging health Threats – officially started on 1 June 2022 is a € 9.18 million project and lasts for five years. The project is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme with Grant Agreement number 101057554.
The consortium involves 19 organisations from Sweden, Germany, France, Spain, Greece, The Netherlands, Italy, UK, and Bangladesh, with world leading experts in a wide range of disciplines including zoonoses, infectious disease epidemiology, social sciences, artificial intelligence, environmental economics, and environmental and climate sciences.
About icddr,b
icddr,b formerly known as International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh is an international public health research institution based in Bangladesh. Established in 1960, icddr,b has been at the forefront of discovering low cost solutions to key public health challenges facing people in poverty and provides robust evidence of their effectiveness at a large scale. Instrumental in the development of oral rehydration therapy, icddr, b's research in this area has been credited with saving more than 70 million lives worldwide. From an early focus on cholera and diarrhoeal disease, the scope has expanded to encompass most of the global public health challenges.
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