Shifting Landscapes and Evolving Pathogens: Understanding population vulnerabilities and enhancing health system resilience (SHAPE)
DANIDA has granted 10 mio danish kroner to this project which is a cooperation between Makerere University (Uganda), University of Glasgow og UCPH. Lene Jung Kjær is PI on the project and other participants from UCPH are Matt Denwood, Arshnee Moodley, Marta Canuti and Britt Pinkowski Tersbøl.
The project investigates global health and emerging pathogens from a socio-ecological systems perspective. We will analyse vulnerabilities of rural communities in the context of constrained health care systems and external stressors in Uganda. For example, biodiversity loss and climate change impact vector-borne diseases, which disproportionately impacts the marginalised communities that depend on natural environments. Climatic and socio-economic stressors can increase pathogen exposure, triggering disease emergencies.
We will focus on the interplay between socio-economic conditions among marginalised populations, pathogen evolution, wildlife ecology, and human- and capital driven environmental changes.
We aim to promote resilience of health systems in rural communities in Uganda by identifying vulnerabilities, assessing how environmental and social shifts affect pathogen dynamics, and developing strategies to enhance community resilience. Using agent-based modeling, we will explore how changing livelihoods, socioeconomic factors, and environmental transformations influence pathogen diversity, animal-human transmission, and rural community health.
