Brazil and France partner on monitoring diseases in the Amazon border

Border regions are especially sensitive to the transmission of diseases. Despite being used to stop people from crossing from one country to the other, they cannot prevent the dissemination of viruses and other infectious diseases, notes a posting on the website of the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz).

In this context, Brazilian and French institutions have partnered to create an International Mixed Lab (LMI Sentinel), which will work to fight vector-borne diseases in Amazon border regions. LMI is an initiative of the French Research Institute for Development (IRD in French) together with Fiocruz, through the Instituto de Comunicação e Informação Científica e Tecnológica em Saúde - Icict/Fiocruz (Institute for Scientific and Technological Communication and Information on Health) with the support of Fiocruz Global Health Center (Cris-Fiocruz), and the Federal University of Brasília (UnB).

By using field research, geoprocessing, remote sensing and information technology, the project will start monitoring the relationship between climate change and malaria on the border between Amapá, in the North of Brasil, and French Guiana. The lab represents an opportunity to develop new technologies and methodologies, acting as a comprehensive information system that will gather data on the species of existing vectors, level of water in rivers, deforestation, urbanization, migrations, changes in the use of soil, among other things that influence disease transmission. Subsequently, the system will also cover surveillance of other vector-borne diseases, like zika, dengue and chikungunya, and other border regions, like the border between the state of Amazonas, Colombia and Peru.