THE WASHINGTON POST HIGHLIGHTS THE WORK OF THE HEALTH INNOVATION LAB IN NATIVE COMMUNITIES OF THE AMAZON
Dr. Gabriel Carrasco (32 years old) is the director of the Health Innovation Laboratory – Photo: The Washington Post.
“On the hunt for climate diseases,” with this headline, The Washington Post, one of the most widely read newspapers in the United States, presented the arduous work being carried out by the Health Innovation Laboratory in the native communities of the Peruvian Amazon.
“While leveraging drones and sensors, their goal is to produce highly detailed maps of where diseases (transmitted by mosquitoes or other animals) are moving to as new weather patterns emerge,” The Washington Post said. It is important to note that the U.S. newspaper sent Ana Campoy and Sarah Voisin to Peru for this report. They followed the work of the Health Innovation Laboratory at all times. They also talked with many Heredian researchers, including Dr. Theresa Ochoa, director of the Alexander Von Humboldt Institute of Tropical Medicine.
Health Innovation Lab uses drones – Photo: The Washington Post
Alarming data
According to The Washington Post, by 2070, the malaria transmission season could be extended by up to five months in some parts of the country, particularly in mid-elevation areas on the edges of the Amazon basin.
“Flooding can also turn these communities into leptospirosis hotspots as heavy rains dump garbage and infected rats. Contaminated water can remain for days, sometimes up to waist-deep, making it unavoidable for residents and causing an increase in cases,” the news media added.
Dr. Carrasco’s team visits a community health worker in El Varillal (Loreto) – Photo: The Washington Post.
The team in action
The Health Innovation Lab is a multidisciplinary space focused on designing and evaluating innovative and accessible technologies to improve people’s health. Its director is Dr. Gabriel Carrasco, a professor at the School of Public Health and Administration and a senior researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute of Tropical Medicine.
In an interview with our portal, he explained: “The multiple environmental parameters are then used to develop models that allow the construction of an early warning and response system for climate-sensitive disease outbreaks. These models are codesigned with local authorities, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Environment. These models provide timely information to decision makers to anticipate disease outbreaks, whose pattern is being altered by climate change, and to allocate the necessary resources.”
To learn more about the work he is currently doing in the native communities of the Amazon, we invite you to read the full article in The Washington Post (click on the image):
