Predicting Drug-Resistant Bacterial Dynamics in Maternity Wards of Burkina Faso and Cameroon under Climate Change: A Precision Public Health Study

Blaise Bougnom of the Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases in Cameroon will develop models to predict the impact of climate change on the spread of clinically relevant, drug-resistant bacteria in maternity wards in Cameroon and Burkina Faso to enhance public health preparedness. The models will integrate climate data with data from hospitals across different climate zones in the two countries, enabled by a partnership with the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. They will collect and sequence bacterial samples from these hospitals, while also performing environmental monitoring in them. They will then collect historical and projected climate data for the relevant areas of the countries, using it to develop models that predict transmission of drug-resistant bacterial strains. Using the models, they will design targeted interventions, such as enhanced hygiene protocols, pilot testing them in hospitals to improve maternal and neonatal health outcomes.