Product/Service Development

Water scarcity around the globe has been greatly exacerbated by climate change. This situation is particularly bad in Rwanda, where severe drought has been combined with extreme rain and floods in recent years. In most rural parts of the country, clean water is not available. This lack of access to clean water is the main cause of illness and diseases. Over 85% of diseases treated at Health Posts in rural areas are water-borne diseases. Rural citizens' only choice is to fetch and use untreated water from rivers or rain for drinking and cooking.

We focus on respiratory health impacts from allergenic pollen and fungal spores and air quality in a low-income area of South Africa within the Vaal Triangle Airshed Priority Area (VTAPA). This study will focus Vanderbijlpark, township Sharpeville where the NWU Climate Research Group runs long-term air pollution measurements. We aim to answer the question: do respiratory diseases increase with exposure to air pollution and pollen? The gap we are trying to fill is a more holistic view and assessment of health risks from air quality and aerosopora, focusing on a seasonal scale.

Malaria is a devastating parasitic disease that affects 250 million people worldwide. 90% of all deaths due to malaria are in sub-Saharan Africa. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends the use of Long-Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLIN) as the main technique to suppress mosquito populations and hence reduce malaria transmission. The use of LLIN has been successful since their launch in the early 2000s but from 2016 onwards, malaria cases have been increasing. The problem is only one type of insecticide was used to treat LLIN.

In Kenya, Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), the severe form of leishmaniasis, is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) of public health concern. VL is transmitted by the bite of infected female phlebotomine sandflies and is fatal if not treated. VL outbreaks have become recurrent (2008-2019) in arid and semi-arid areas. New foci of the disease have been reported (e.g. Kajiado county) with sporadic cases in Kitui and Tharaka Nithi counties indicating an expanding geographic spread.

South Africa's mental health ranks one of the lowest in the world, calling for evidence-based interventions. Vulnerability to mental distress is highest among marginalized groups, including children, recently exacerbated by extreme climate events and COVID-19. South Africa's legacy of racial segregation (Apartheid) now manifests at personal and environmental levels, as psychological fragmentation (worsened by intergenerational trauma), and a sense of separation from the natural world.

The problem, according to reports of https://www.wateraid.org/where-we-work/uganda, 21 million people out of a growing population of 45 million, do not have access to clean and safe water, let alone credible water infrastructure to access the small available piped water.

La famine et la malnutrition sont courantes au Burkina Faso. Elles sont la conséquence des mauvais rendements des agriculteurs, pour cause des sécheresses et des changements climatiques. Elles ont pris de l'ampleur ces dernières années, surtout dans les environnants des grandes villes comme Ouagadougou où les déplacés internes ont fait accroitre de façon exponentielle le nombre de la population.

The burden of malnutrition is increasing in most developing countries (Pinstrup‐Andersen, 2007). The Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS) 2014 report shows that 24.7% of children in Siaya 0-5 years are stunted, 7.8% are underweight and 4.7% wasted. In the sub-Saharan Africa, a larger part of the population in the lower socio-economic group relies on monotonous cereal-based diets, as their major source of nutrition. Cereal-based diets contain adequate amounts of micronutrients but their bioavailability is very low.

Environ 3,14 milliards de personnes souffrent de malnutrition dans le monde. Malgré son développement économique ces dernières décennies, le Cameroun a fait peu de progrès dans la réduction de la malnutrition. Le triple fardeau de la malnutrition au Cameroun est souligné par la persistance de taux élevés de retard de croissance et d'émaciation (29%), de carences multiples en micronutriments (57%), et d'un fardeau croissant de surpoids dans les zones urbaines (11 %).

Mosquito-transmitted viruses have emerged unexpectedly causing explosive epidemics, millions of infections, and death. Early detection of these viruses is challenging as they emerge and spread infecting many before being noticed. To address this shortcoming, we propose to evaluate a surveillance system based on the detection of viruses in mosquito saliva. Mosquitoes expectorate viruses in their saliva during sugar feeding. A mosquito trap that detects viruses in saliva expectorated by mosquitoes has recently been developed.