CLIMADE Americas

our Project

THE AMERICAS

For CLIMADE Americas, the overarching vision is to create a Pan-American consortium to generate knowledge, develop localized tools and inform public health action for early warning and timely/targeted response to pathogens amplified by climate change. A key objective will be to fill critical knowledge gaps and blind spots of disease transmission predicted to pose increased threats in the future.

The initial activities in CLIMADE-Americas will be used as leverage to apply for further funding to expand the CLIMADE consortium and to ensure sustainability of the initiative. Importantly, the analysis of the data for CLIMADE Americas will be supported by partners in Latin America as well as in the U.S.A and Canada. The initial aims for CLIMADE-Americas are to:

Aim 1. Build a pan-American coalition to assess arbovirus susceptibility and transmission

Leveraging the PAHO network and the NIH funded program UWARD at the University of Washington , regular meetings with pan-American scientists and country-level public health officials will be held to better understand previous epidemics as well as to understand the state of pathogen surveillance in the Americas. A systemic review of published and unpublished literature on the landscape of arboviruses in Americas will be conducted to close the gap on epidemics caused by arboviruses across the continent. A detailed spatio-temporal risk map of historical and current arboviral presence and epidemic occurrences in the Americas will be created to establish the level of endemicity across the continent in contrast to risk of importations from other high incidence areas of the world. A large body of publication in Latin America already has been produced for CLIMADE scientists for the extensive Arboviral epidemics (i.e. Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya and Yellow Fever Virus).

Aim 2. Accelerate representation of climate amplified pathogen genomes by using the genomics network of PAHO and FioCruz Foundation in Brazil

The FioCruz Foundation in collaboration with the Minister of Health in Brazil and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) have already expanded arboviral sequencing to dozens of laboratories in Latin America. In the same manner, the specialized genomics facility of FioCruz in Brazil will support Pan-American Countries. Increasing the coverage of genomic sequencing for climate amplified pathogens is critical to fill in the knowledge gaps with regards to prevalence, transmission dynamics, evolutionary history, and outbreak characterization of epidemics in African and Latin American countries, and to inform interventions taken by public health stakeholders. . Standardized protocols for sample collection, storage, processing, and sequencing for specific pathogens will be shared with ministries of health and made publicly available through websites such as protocols.io. The program in Brazil will be expanded in Latin America, using a responsible research and innovation (RRI) framework, that includes equity, capacity building and public engagement.

Aim 3: Establish sustainable capacity and processes for pathogen genomics in the Americas

The PAHO specialized Genomics Facilities at FioCruz in Brazil will provide training for on arbovirus sequencing and analysis. Skill transfer and local capacity building will ensure that as many countries as possible in Africa and Latin America are ready and able to detect and sequence arboviruses and other pathogens from clinical samples during an outbreak. Countries prioritized to receive training will be those at greatest risk of climate effects on epidemics and with the lowest preparedness towards them. Selection of trainees will be in consultation with ministries of health and public health institutions to ensure sustainability of capacity.