Boran cattle grazing at Kapiti Ranch, Kenya (photo credit: ILRI).
Overview
Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa is an Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA)-funded research programme designed to deliver much-needed, cutting-edge science on the relationships between ecosystems, zoonoses, health and wellbeing, with the objective of helping people move out of poverty and promoting social justice.
It focuses on four emerging or re-emerging zoonotic diseases in four diverse African ecosystems:
- Henipavirus infection in Ghana
- Rift Valley fever in Kenya
- Lassa fever in Sierra Leone
- Trypanosomiasis in Zambia and Zimbabwe
Its innovative, holistic approach brings together natural and social scientists to build an evidence base designed to inform global and national policy players seeking effective, integrated approaches to control and check disease outbreaks.
The Drivers of Disease Consortium comprises over 30 researchers working in 17 institutes across Africa, Europe and the US and includes researchers in the environmental, biological, social, political, and human and animal health sciences. They will generate new knowledge on:
- Ecosystem change
- How ecology and people’s interactions with ecosystems affect disease emergence
- Disease transmission and exposure
Timeline
Start Date: 1 February 2012 | End Date: 31 July 2015
Country/Region
Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Principal Investigator
Bernard Bett
Scientists
Delia Grace
Steve Kemp
Thomas Randolph
Partners
- Institute of Zoology, UK
- International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
- Kenema Government Hospital, Sierra Leone
- Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)
- Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Zimbabwe
- Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Zambia
- Njala University, Sierra Leone
- STEPS Centre, UK
- Stockholm Resilience Centre
- Tulane University
- University College London
- University of Cambridge
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Nairobi
- University of Zambia
- University of Zimbabwe
- Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission of Ghana
Funder
The programme is funded by a £3.2m grant from the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
External link
Project website
AgHealth 
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