Project 2 - Center for Transformative Infectious Disease Research on Climate, Health and Equity in a Changing Environment (C-CHANGE)

PROJECT 2 SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are a significant human health burden around the world and are linked with climate change in complex ways. In terms of vector biology, direct linkages can be made in the laboratory setting between climate-related parameters and aspects of vector competence for pathogen transmission. In

the field, human behavioral responses to climate fluctuations can also directly impact vector control. Understanding these relationships in the context of modeling traditional parameters and the interplay between humans, animals, and the environment is critical to designing community-based interventions for vulnerable

populations. This is the second research project proposed as part of the P20 Center for Transformative Infectious Disease Research on Climate, Health, and Equity in a Changing Environment (C-CHANGE). Here, we have put together an international team (Cornell University, University of Pretoria, and Washington State University)

to combine expertise in vectors, pathogens, and climate change to lay the foundational groundwork for longer- term studies by the C-CHANGE center on how climate and community practices affect public health, specifically in the realm of climate-sensitive VBDs. Through this partnership, which will be built sustainably and

equitably with funding from the center, we will have access to field sites at the front lines of these issues in addition to state-of-the art modeling and pathogen genomic technologies. We will draw on support from the community engagement and data cores in order to integrate qualitative data in our models and set up

mechanisms to test the efficacy of future interventions. In Aim 1: mosquito-borne diseases (MBD) we will identify and analyze risk factors for malaria and mosquito-borne arboviruses in collaboration with the UP Institute for Sustainable Malaria Control. Preliminary modeling systems will be expanded to include epidemiological and vector ecology data towards development

of a model capable of predicting future trends at district, national and continental scales. In Aim 2: tick-borne diseases (TBD) we will leverage an ongoing project on infectious causes of acute febrile illness in the Mnisi community, situated adjacent to the Kruger National Park in South Africa. At this site,

we will study the TBD pathogen dynamics between people and the animals they closely interact with in the context of climate parameters and community demographics. We will use novel sequencing and computational evolutionary approaches to identify signatures of zoonotic transmission that can be linked back to the climate-

related behaviors and leveraged for diagnostic development to directly benefit the community.