Open Network for WAter-Related Diseases (ONWARD)

水相关疾病开放网络 (ONWARD)

• 批准号: EP/T003820/1
• 负责人: T Platt
• 金额: $ 19.34万
• 依托单位: Plymouth Marine Laboratory
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FT003820%2F1
• 关键词: Open; Network; WAter; Related; Diseases

The ONWARD Network (Open Network for Water-Related Diseases) is dedicated to forecasting, early warning and risk mapping for water-associated diseases through use of remote sensing, field observations and mathematical modelling. Our vision is to enable cost-effective, regularly updated, geo-referenced early warning for areas vulnerable to water-associated diseases, which in turn will enable preventive measures to be deployed in a timely manner to minimise the probability of epidemics. Our long-term vision is to establish a system that will be applicable broadly, in a variety of localities and for a variety of diseases.By "water-associated" disease, we mean a rather broad class, including diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera; skin diseases associated with water-borne bacteria or metazoan parasites; vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever; and others such as hepatitis. Any or all of them will be relevant to the activities of the network. The "water" involved may be fresh, or brackish or coastal seawater. The network will respond primarily the GCRF Challenge of Global Health (infectious diseases), and secondarily to that of Resilience to Environmental Shocks and Change (since outbreaks of water-associated diseases are affected by extreme weather events, expected to become more frequent as a result of climate change). The network will also address UN Sustainable Development Goal 3, Target 3d, to "Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks." According to the World Health Organisation, some two billion people use faecally-contaminated drinking water, putting them at risk of death or chronic poor health from water-borne infectious diseases such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Provision of safe drinking water is hostage to the influence of extreme weather and flooding. Apart from the fatalities, the effect of a chronic burden of lower-level infection by water-associated diseases is antagonistic to the maintenance of a healthy work force and to the well-being of society in general, to the detriment of sustainable development. For example, cholera kills an estimated 95,000 people every year, but it also makes another 2.9 million seriously ill with a debilitating disease. Hence the need to address, in addition, the resilience of communities to perturbations of the safe drinking water supply under extreme weather events associated with a changing climate.Before now, our ability to develop early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks due to water-associated diseases has been limited by mutual isolation of the scientific communities whose collective effort is required to make progress. Forecasting outbreaks of water-associated diseases and their geo-referenced risk mapping is a complex matter for which the collaboration of experts from several disciplines (ranging from environmental biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, social sciences and epidemiology to remote sensing and modelling) is needed if we are to make real advances. Hitherto, the required experts have rarely encountered each other in a scientific setting. A multidisciplinary network is essential to foster exchange of ideas between them, and so build a collaborative approach to a difficult problem by uniting them behind a common target. We believe that progress in early warning, risk forecasting and risk management of water-associated diseases will be possible through the combined efforts of specialists in the stated disciplines. Establishment of a related network is the perfect way to bring this about. An international team of outstanding experts, as well as related stakeholders, has been assembled to undertake the work. The network will be an open one. As well as the research activity, there will be a component of capacity building delivered through two training courses.

未来网络(与水有关的疾病开放网络)致力于通过使用遥感、实地观察和数学模型对与水有关的疾病进行预测、预警和风险测绘。我们的愿景是为易患与水有关的疾病的地区提供具有成本效益的、定期更新的地理参照早期预警，从而使预防措施得以及时部署，将发生流行病的可能性降至最低。我们的长远目标是建立一个广泛适用于不同地区和各种疾病的系统。我们所说的与水有关的疾病是指一个相当广泛的类别，包括霍乱等腹泻疾病；与水传播细菌或后生动物寄生虫有关的皮肤疾病；疟疾和登革热等媒介传播疾病；以及其他如肝炎等。它们中的任何一个或全部都将与该网络的活动有关。涉及的“水”可能是淡水，也可能是微咸水或沿海海水。该网络将主要应对GCRF全球卫生挑战(传染病)，其次是应对环境冲击和变化的韧性挑战(因为与水有关的疾病的爆发受到极端天气事件的影响，预计会因气候变化而变得更加频繁)。该网络还将涉及联合国可持续发展目标3，目标3，以“加强所有国家，特别是发展中国家预警、降低风险和管理国家和全球健康风险的能力”。根据世界卫生组织的数据，约有20亿人使用受粪便污染的饮用水，这使他们面临霍乱、痢疾、伤寒和脊髓灰质炎等水媒传染病导致的死亡或慢性健康状况不佳的风险。提供安全饮用水受到极端天气和洪水的影响。除了死亡，与水有关的疾病造成的较低水平感染的长期负担的影响与维持健康的劳动力和整个社会的福祉相反，不利于可持续发展。例如，据估计，霍乱每年导致9.5万人死亡，但它也会使另外290万人患上一种令人衰弱的疾病。因此，还需要解决社区在与气候变化相关的极端天气事件下对安全饮用水供应的扰动的适应能力。在此之前，由于科学界相互孤立，而科学界需要作出集体努力才能取得进展，因此我们制定预警、减少风险和管理与水有关的疾病造成的国家和全球健康风险的能力一直受到限制。预测与水有关的疾病的暴发及其与地理有关的风险测绘是一项复杂的工作，如果我们要取得真正的进展，就需要几个学科(从环境生物化学、遗传学、分子生物学、社会科学和流行病学到遥感和建模)的专家协作。到目前为止，所需的专家很少在科学环境中相遇。多学科网络对于促进他们之间的思想交流至关重要，因此，通过将他们团结在一个共同的目标下，建立一种解决难题的协作方法。我们认为，通过各学科专家的共同努力，将有可能在与水有关的疾病的预警、风险预测和风险管理方面取得进展。建立一个相关的网络是实现这一点的完美方式。已经组建了一个由杰出专家以及相关利益攸关方组成的国际小组来开展这项工作。这个网络将是一个开放的网络。除研究活动外，还将通过两个培训班提供能力建设的一个组成部分。