Grantham Research Institute authors contribute to The Lancet paper on empowering Europe against infectious diseases

The Lancet Regional Health – Europe journal published a scientific paper on 7 August 2023 authored by a distinguished team of international researchers as part of their work in the IDAlert project. Titled “Decision-Support Tools to Build Climate Resilience Against Emerging Infectious Diseases in Europe and Beyond“, this paper introduces a transformative approach to tackle the emergence and transmission of climate-sensitive infectious diseases in Europe, informing cross-sectoral policy while improving the long-term climate resilience of health systems to infectious disease risks.

Climate change is one of several drivers of recurrent outbreaks and geographical range expansion of infectious diseases in Europe. This paper proposes a collaborative approach to develop policy-relevant indicators and decision-support tools. These tools are designed to comprehensively track and anticipate climate-induced disease risks across various domains, including environmental hazard, exposure patterns, and vulnerability factors.

The paper includes contributions from Grantham Research Institute affiliated authors: Elizabeth Robinson (Director), Sara Mehryar (Research Fellow) and Shouro Dasgupta (Visiting Senior Fellow).

About the IDAlert project:

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, and the UK Research and Innovation, with project ref number 10056533.