The Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Framework for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Region was developed in 2022 based on the consensus that a unified approach was needed for the sustainable management of water resources and a climate-resilient future. To make the IWRM Framework actionable, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) seeks partnership on Strategic Goal 1: Improve capacities/frameworks for holistic, multi-sectoral and cross-cutting disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation that integrates circular economic principles and gender considerations. Specifically, we will focus on two strategic objectives: developing a regional water-related infectious disease manual for use by environmental health officers in CARPHA Member States, and developing regional water quality standards that are in line with accepted international standards.
Investigators: L. Francis, S. Kirton*, S. Bishop-Matthews*, & K. Charlemagne* (*CARPHA)

Climate change directly impacts the dynamics of infectious diseases, especially mosquito-borne viruses. Dengue is a high-priority target for study, given the increasing spread of the disease, its severe health impacts, and the abundance of epidemiological, genetic, and vector data. This team of epidemiologists, genomic virologists, and entomologists will (1) define the necessary climate and socio-economic conditions for absent, epidemic, or endemic transmission and (2) predict the real-time expansion of epidemic and endemic transmission due to climate change. We will collaborate with the CDC Puerto Rico branch to help design a step-wise holistic program encompassing prevention strategies, targeted surveillance, and control measures. Results will foster the allocation of important resources, like new vaccines and emerging mosquito-control technologies. 
Investigators: A. Bento, L. Goodman, & L. Harrington 

Pandemics can impact every person on Earth, causing anguish, loss of life, and economic hardships. Current pandemic mitigation efforts are reactive, focusing on early detection of pathogens (e.g., surveillance) or slowing the spread and impact of pathogens once they are circulating in human populations (e.g., vaccines and therapeutics). We are developing a roadmap for proactive pandemic prevention that identifies and addresses the factors that cause pathogens to enter the human population in the first place. We will create a best practices roadmap for spillover investigation and prevention that builds on programs funded by the World Bank. We will communicate our roadmap to the World Bank Pandemic Fund to guide future investments and will develop an online course for communicating best practices to local communities. Investigators: R. Plowright, C. Willison, A. Bento, & A. Gamble 

“The Tick Blitz” is an annual effort of the Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector- Borne Diseases (NEVBD) to understand which tick species are present in NY state and track their expansion due to climate change and changes in land use. This year (June 2024), we will focus on rural and indigenous communities for which almost no information is available. Prior efforts have only enabled identification of tick species; no genomic testing for pathogens or dynamic modeling of disease spread was performed. This year, we will perform state-of-the-art pathogen testing and modeling, which will inform state agencies and healthcare providers in those underserved communities of new and emerging pathogens of concern.
Investigators: L. Goodman, A. Bento, & L. Harrington