Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research Archives - News@91��ɫ

91��ɫ profs lead $5.5 million HEATSCAPE-Africa project

egamulin — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 15:56:39 +0000

Benedict Weobong and Godfred Boateng head international team exploring climate-related heat, sleep and mental-health issues with funding from leading global charity Wellcome

TORONTO, Oct. 2, 2025 – HEATSCAPE-Africa, a new international collaboration led by researchers in the Faculty of Health at 91��ɫ, will look at the relationship between climate-related heat and mental health. Supported by a $5.5 million grant by , a global charitable foundation that supports science to solve urgent health challenges, the 91��ɫ-led project also involves partners from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in the U.K. and community partners in Africa, including Navrongo Health Research Centre, Kintampo Health Research Centre and Kgotso Development Trust. University of Ghana and BasicNeeds Ghana are also key collaborators.

“Thanks to this generous grant from Wellcome, we hope to answer questions on the potential impact of climate change on mental-health issues such as anxiety and depression, particularly in Africa,” says project lead Benedict Weobong, associate professor in the School of Global Health at 91��ɫ. “Furthermore, we will explore the underlying factors that explain the relationship and why individuals exposed to extreme heat may suffer from mental-health issues.”

HEATSCAPE-Africa project lead Benedict Weobong

With a strong focus on involving those with lived experience, the project will zero in on a contextual understanding of heat and mental health, methodological advances to identify causal mechanisms through a two-year prospective cohort study and community and health-system readiness.

“91��ɫ is honoured to partner with Wellcome on this pioneering research that has the potential to transform how the world understands the impacts of climate change on mental health,” says Amir Asif, Vice President of Research and Innovation at 91��ɫ. "Through 91��ɫ’s Global Research Excellence (GRE) Fund, we were happy to support Professor Weobong develop the Wellcome Trust proposal with international partners. By leading collaborations that span continents and disciplines, we are shaping solutions that not only advance scientific discovery, but also inspire a healthier, more equitable future for generations to come.”

Weobong and his colleagues, including 91��ɫ School of Global Health Associate Professor Godfred Odei Boateng, believe the connection may lie with sleep health and cognitive function being affected by extreme temperatures, with many mental-health issues coming after a period of poor sleep, and many mental health conditions affecting the quality of sleep. The relationship with high temperatures and poor sleep is also well known, with ideal temperatures for most adults being between 15 - 19C. The research will take place in Ghana, which has a hot climate year-round with typical temperatures ranging from 19 - 34C, and Zimbabwe, which experiences more seasonal variability, with temperatures dipping as low as 8C in the winter.

Co-applicant Gofred Odei Boateng

“This grant offers us a remarkable opportunity to explore the complex mechanisms behind mental-health challenges across selected life stages,” says Boateng. “Additionally, it will help us identify key intervention points that have the potential to alleviate the long-term impacts of climate change and poor sleep, while informing the development of adaptive strategies for low-resource settings.”

Adolescents, women of reproductive age and older adults are the focus of the five-year project. Weobong says there is good evidence supporting the vulnerability of each of these groups to climate-related heat.

“Pregnant women are already at higher risk of poor sleep and research shows they and their babies are vulnerable to adverse impacts of poor heat and sleep,” says Weobong, adding that little of the research has been conducted in Africa. “We also know that adolescent brain development is affected by sleep and 50 per cent of mental-health conditions in adults started when they were adolescents.”

Weobong says this cohort focus will also allow them to examine household and intergenerational linkages and explore coping strategies within family systems.

Co-applicants include Boateng, LSHTM quantitative epidemiologist assistant professor Seyi Soremekun and sleep specialist Professor Helen Anne Weiss, Zimbabwe lead Dr. Newton Matandirotya and Ghana leads Dr. Raymond Aborigo and Dr. Kenneth Ae-Ngibise.

“Mental health problems are universal, although the ways these challenges are expressed might be different,” says Weobong, who is originally from Ghana and pursued research opportunities in the U.K. and India before coming to Canada. “There used to be a time where there was an assumption that depression was only a challenge of the Global North, and while we’ve moved past that, there are many outstanding challenges, especially when looking at access to treatment in the Global South.”

-30-

91��ɫ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. 91��ɫ's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91��ɫ’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact:

Emina Gamulin, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

The post 91��ɫ profs lead $5.5 million HEATSCAPE-Africa project appeared first on News@91��ɫ.

91��ɫ-led safe water tool nearly three times more effective than standard practice, new study finds

egamulin — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 12:48:31 +0000

91��ɫ researcher says with significant cuts to humanitarian funding in 2025, demand for cost-effective, evidence-based solutions is growing

91��ɫ researcher Syed Imran Ali, SWOT team lead.

TORONTO, Thursday, Aug. 21 – A finds a dramatic increase in safe drinking water when a machine learning-enabled tool created by 91��ɫ researchers is used to optimize chlorination levels in refugee camp water supplies. Lead author Syed Imran Ali says that the new study shows that the vastly out-performs status-quo guidelines for safe water supply in humanitarian response.

“Our research found the SWOT can deliver safe drinking water at nearly three times the rate as compared to standard practices, adding to a growing body of evidence that shows it to be a highly efficacious tool in a variety of situations,” says Ali, director of the Humanitarian Water Engineering Lab at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research and an adjunct professor at the Lassonde School of Engineering.

“With humanitarian work being undertaken in increasingly challenging conditions and the system under immense financial strain, the demand for evidence-based solutions like the SWOT is growing.”

For the study, published in BMJ Global Health, the researchers analyzed routinely collected water-quality data from an active humanitarian response at the Kutupalong-Balukhali refugee settlement in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh where the SWOT had been implemented. They found that households following SWOT guidelines achieved safe water 90 per cent of the time, compared to 35 per cent with the status-quo universal guideline otherwise used in humanitarian response.

The study also found that in order for the intervention to have maximum impact, water monitoring teams and water treatment operations need to be integrated to find the optimized chlorination levels.

SWOT team workers using equipment at a tap stand in Bangladesh. Courtesy Matt Arnold

“The challenge is making sure that water system operators have the proper support to improve feedback between monitoring and water treatment.”

Other authors on the paper and fellow SWOT collaborators include machine learning lead Professor Usman T. Khan from Lassonde’s Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Health Associate Professor Tarra Penney, PhD candidate Mike De Santi, former Dahdaleh director Dr. James Orbinski, SWOT technical advisor Matt Arnold, SWOT data science specialist Syed Saad Ali, and Jean-François Fesselet with the public health department at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Holland.

The SWOT is a free, open-source online tool that Ali developed after working as a water and sanitation specialist in South Sudan with MSF. Ali and colleagues discovered that universal water chlorination guidelines used widely in the humanitarian sector were built on faulty assumptions. They worked on creating a tool with fellow 91��ɫ researchers and MSF to help aid workers generate site-specific and evidence-based chlorination levels in refugee camps using just routine monitoring data. It has since helped provide safe water for more than 700,000 people globally. This includes recent collaborations in Yemen and Gaza, where Ali says there are extreme operational challenges, and Uganda, where Ali firsthand witnessed the effects of recent dramatic U.S. government cuts to the humanitarian sector.

“Basic humanitarian life support systems, across the world, are degrading very quickly and the sector is operating under extremely challenging conditions,” says Ali. “There's a pressure now, with reduced resources, to ensure interventions are evidence-based and demonstrably effective, and that's exactly what the SWOT does for safe water systems.”

-30-

Media Contact: Emina Gamulin, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

The post 91��ɫ-led safe water tool nearly three times more effective than standard practice, new study finds appeared first on News@91��ɫ.

When big oil pulls out

egamulin — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 13:00:22 +0000

Symposium on Shell’s legacy in Niger Delta and what comes next brings diverse group of scholars and activists to 91��ɫ’s Keele Campus

April 9, 2025, TORONTO – With the Shell company having finalized the sale of assets in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, questions remain for those who fought against decades of human rights and environmental abuses in the region: How do you keep Shell accountable for the damage they’ve done? Will divestment be more than a clever PR ploy for big oil and gas?

Prof. Anna Zalik

These questions bring together a diverse group of scholars, community leaders, activists, legal experts and international advocates to 91��ɫ April 10 and 11, for the two-day symposium: From the Niger Delta, Nigeria to the World - Charting a Global Just Transition Agenda.

The legacy of oil pollution and human rights abuses in the Niger Delta are one of the worst, with Shell even being accused of being complicit in the Nigerian state’s secret sentencing and killing of activists in the 1990s, says Environment and Urban Change Prof. , one of the organizers of the event.

“Arguably, attention to injustice in the region spurred corporate social responsibility as an industrial movement and was central to creating the environmental justice movement globally. This symposium is an opportunity to take a hard look at this legacy of corporate abuse, resistance, and what comes next,” says Zalik.

From the earliest days of colonization in Nigeria, the British identified Niger Delta as economically useful for resource extraction, and, for the last 60 years, Shell has been involved in oil and gas extraction in the region.

91��ɫ PhD alum Isaac Asume Osuoka

Informed by a report put together by the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission, which declares Shell’s legacy in the region as an environmental genocide, the symposium examines the prospects for a global just transition.

“When the word divestment is used — Shell for example dumping toxic assets on so-called local companies and shirking their historic responsibility to clean up— what does it really mean? There are questions regarding the limitations of the whole idea of just transition,” says 91��ɫ PhD alum Isaac Asume Osuoka, a former Vanier scholar and one of the authors of the Bayelsa Report who will chair the discussion on the report at the symposium.

“This 91��ɫ conference is an opportunity to address those gaps in terms of how this conversation has been framed in dominant discourses.”

The symposium will be held this Thursday and Friday at 91��ɫ at 519 at 91��ɫ’s Keele Campus, with global environmental justice activist, author, architect, think-tank director and 91��ɫ Honorary Doctorate Nnimmo Bassey giving the keynote speech on Thursday at 3 p.m. can attend virtually for those unable to make it in person.

-30-

Media Contact:

Emina Gamulin, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

The post When big oil pulls out appeared first on News@91��ɫ.

War on bugs can’t be won, 91��ɫ U researchers declare

egamulin — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 15:00:00 +0000

New paper from Global Strategy Lab calls for antimicrobial resistance to be reframed as a sustainability issue

TORONTO, Jan 9, 2024 – From a wartime spread of antimicrobial resistant disease in Ukraine, to superbugs in China causing “white lung” pneumonia in children, 2023 brought no shortage of new evidence that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) continues to be a pressing problem globally, and this pattern shows no sign of abating in 2024 unless a radical shift occurs.

Lead author Isaac Weldon

To truly tackle the issue of AMR, 91��ɫ researchers with the Global Strategy Lab (GSL) argue it needs to be understood as a socio-ecological challenge that accepts AMR as a phenomenon stemming from natural evolutionary processes. In other words, the war on bugs can’t be won; what’s needed is a major change in how people live with it.

“For the past hundred years, we’ve tried to address AMR like a medical problem. But we haven't really made much progress in actually mitigating the deeper drivers of the issue,” says, a recent 91��ɫ PhD political science graduate and lead author of in the prestigious Perspectives on Politics journal. “We argue that there's a lot of potential to make progress by instead looking at it as a problem with our relationship with the microbial world and sustainability.”

AMR stems from both the natural tendency of bacteria, viruses and fungi to evolve as well as the acceleration of that process through human interventions such as an over-reliance or misuse of antibiotics in medical settings, to the routine use of antimicrobials in the livestock industry. Global data from 2019 showed more than a million deaths a year directly related to AMR, and the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have accelerated this process.

GSL director Steven J. Hoffman

Last year, GSL set up the AMR Policy Accelerator with $8.7 million from Wellcome Trust to deal with this urgent threat. While Weldon acknowledges that medical and technological innovation will be a crucial component in managing the issue, new antimicrobial drugs alone will not be the solution.

“What we’re currently doing is treating the symptoms and not the causes of AMR,” says Weldon, also an investigator with GSL. “Without addressing the underlying social relationships that drive our use, innovation would have to operate at an unsustainable speed as these microbes evolve faster than we can make new drugs.”

Weldon and co-author Steven J. Hoffman, director of GSL and Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Global Governance & Legal Epidemiology with 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health and Osgoode Hall Law School, outline major problems with the current governance approach to AMR. They introduce five principles for designing institutions for a better ecological fit of human-microbial ecosystems to minimize drug resistance:

There’s no silver bullet. Recognizing that there is no easy fit or one-fits all solution for AMR means problem-solving must always be tailored to specific ecological situations and health challenges of diverse populations.
Create institutions that can adapt over time. Future proofing doesn’t mean creating institutions that are strong enough to withstand change, but ones flexible enough to evolve with the changing nature of AMR and our relationship to it.
Diversify practices. As the best way to tackle AMR is still unknown, diversifying practices can help us discover what works, when, and where.
Create records. As practices are diversified, records need to be kept of what works to enable learning and adjustments in policy.
Involve stakeholders. This involves everyone from the public at large, to government and decision makers.

“What we are proposing is a completely different way of looking at the issue,” says Hoffman. “We are hoping this journal article will be a foundational piece that will inspire further AMR research in this direction.”

of Weldon explain the research.

GSL is hosting the live online webinar Is “Co-existing” with Microbes the Key to Addressing AMR? on Feb. 1 at 9 a.m. featuring Weldon, Hoffman, and Clare Chandler from the London Tropical School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. For details and registration information,.

About 91��ɫ

Media Contacts: Emina Gamulin, 91��ɫ Media Relations and External Communications, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

The post War on bugs can’t be won, 91��ɫ U researchers declare appeared first on News@91��ɫ.

Water research strength recognized as 91��ɫ hosts timely UN panel

manton — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 19:55:02 +0000

Extreme weather events linked to climate change negatively impact water quality, quantity and sustainability for some of the world’s most vulnerable, but the United Nations (UN) and 91��ɫ along with public and private sector global partners are working toward solutions through the UN’s Global Water Academy (Water Academy).

As academic lead for the Water Academy, 91��ɫ hosted a virtual panel discussion on July 14, 2023, titled, “Humanitarian responses to emerging water crises as a result of extreme climatic events.” The virtual panel discussion was organized as part of the UN’s High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, taking place from July 10 to 19 in New 91��ɫ.

Sapna Sharma, 91��ɫ Research Chair in Global Change Biology in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Science

Moderated by freshwater expert Sapna Sharma, 91��ɫ Research Chair in Global Change Biology in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Science, the 90-minute panel began with welcoming remarks from Alex Mejia, director of the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Division for People and Social Inclusion; Ambassador Luis Gallegos, chair of UNITAR's board of trustees; and, Rhonda Lenton, 91��ɫ’s president and vice-chancellor.

The panel featured a conversation with global experts from the academic and non-profit sectors, including Jessica Vandenberghe, assistant dean, Community and Culture in the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science; Swani Keelson, founder of the Global Water Promise; Nicolas Jarraud, member of the Global Water Partnership secretariat; and Syed Imran Ali, a Research Fellow in Global Health and Humanitarianism from 91��ɫ’s Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research.

Sharma welcomed the more than 150 virtual attendees and spoke about how climatic events directly impact water quantity and quality, “Water crises and extreme climate events, including heatwaves, droughts and storms, are not only getting more frequent but also more intense, and the most vulnerable are paying the highest price,” Sharma said.

To support water research as a priority and a critical part of 91��ɫ's work to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in 2022, the University launched One WATER, an organized research unit dedicated to finding strategic, integrated solutions to water challenges faced by communities in Canada and around the world.

“Extreme climate events and water crises are complex, global challenges that require diverse perspectives to identify sustainable solutions,” said Lenton. "91��ɫ’s academic leadership role with the UN Water Academy and through our organized research unit One Water is driving the positive and sustainable change needed to improve water equity in Canada and around the world.”

91��ɫ is well-positioned to play a guiding role in the multi-sector collaboration that aspires to empower community-based networks, weave traditional knowledge, and inspire innovation to ensure equitable access to water for all.

WATCH: Humanitarian responses to emerging water crises as a result of extreme climatic events

91��ɫ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. 91��ɫ's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91��ɫ’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact:

media@yorku.ca

The post Water research strength recognized as 91��ɫ hosts timely UN panel appeared first on News@91��ɫ.

To tackle TB, stigma needs to be erased, language transformed, researchers say

egamulin — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 18:00:00 +0000

Researchers, including those affected by tuberculosis, say a holistic approach is needed to eradicate illness that still kills more than 1.4 million people a year globally and disproportionately affects newcomers and Indigenous communities in Canada

A poster from early 1900s Paris shows a woman getting a treatment for tuberculosis by a group of doctors. TB is relatively rare in the west these days, but globally, more than 1.4 million people still die from it every year. To eradicate tuberculosis, a disease that has been in human history for at least thousands of years, shifting language and centring the voices of those affected by the illness is necessary, a group of experts say. (Credit: Wellcome Trust)

TORONTO, March 23, 2023 – While the bacteria that causes tuberculosis (TB) may be millions of years old and the disease was first recorded in human history thousands of years ago, it remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases globally, with only COVID-19 surpassing it in recent years. TB is also one of the most stigmatized diseases. People are often afraid to visit health facilities, take treatment, or share the news with others.

March 24 is World TB Day, but eradicating TB will require attention beyond one 24-hour cycle. It requires eliminating the social stigma, which includes a shift in how we frame and talk about the illness and those affected by it, say 91��ɫ and international researchers in a .

Beauty Umana

“Policing language is not the goal — it's not just about changing the way we talk about TB, but what impact that is going to have on the people and communities that are affected,” says lead author and 91��ɫ Postdoctoral researcher Beauty Umana, a Global Health Scholar with the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research at the University and a sociolinguist who studies how language can interact with disease treatment. “Empowering, destigmatizing language in TB would give people affected by it the opportunity to be included, and take ownership of the healing process, and even the care itself.”

The paper was published this afternoon in PLOS Global Public Health under the senior authorship of , a TB stigma researcher and founding director of 91��ɫ’s Social Sciences & Health Innovations For TB Centre.

“It's one of those underdog illnesses. It's not received as much attention on a global scale in terms of funding investment, political commitment, or support as some of the other diseases that have affected more affluent countries, different types of populations. But it's entirely preventable, it's curable and treatable,” says Daftary.

Amrita Daftary

Contributor , an independent consultant from Nairobi, Kenya who works on programming and policymaking for HIV, TB and malaria, developed TB in her early 20s while studying at university and knows the stigma of the illness all too well.

“Having to go through the entire treatment regimen without my entire family knowing, without my colleagues knowing, it was not an easy task,” says Lewa. “It takes more than new drugs and new technologies to overcome TB. Language is a very powerful lens. With the power of the tongue, you can either build or destroy, you can encourage or deflate somebody.”

While the researchers say that the language is evolving, a lot of what is used in practice still has negative connotations, including that of criminality. For example, people being referred to as TB “suspects” and “cases,” and those who don’t finish a course of treatment being referred to as “absconders.” Terms such as “vulnerable populations” can also be disempowering.

But, Umana emphasizes, it is not just about individual words, but also how those words are contextualized. For example, treatment management files that are written in a way where the person with TB is seen to be a problem, rather than the illness itself and barriers a person may experience to treatment.

Rhoda Lewa

The World Health Organization estimates that in 2021, more than 10 million people were diagnosed with tuberculosis and 1.4 million died, despite antibiotics being available. In Canada, while rates are overall very low, newcomers and Indigenous communities are greatly overrepresented compared with the general Canadian population. In Canada, and all over the world, tuberculosis is often talked about as an illness of poverty, which further stigmatizes those who develop the illness, the researchers say.

The UN has set a Sustainable Development Goal to eradicate TB by 2030.

Umana, Daftary and Lewa, as well as collaborators , James Malar and Deliana Garcia, hope to change how people talk about the disease, and some of them were also involved in developing a TB language guidance .

“Compassionate language is about people who are affected by tuberculosis seeing themselves in those words and saying ‘You know what? This is my story, this is my life, and I’m going to take full control of it,’” says Umana.

explain why compassionate language matters.

About 91��ɫ

91��ɫ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. 91��ɫ’s fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario’s Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91��ɫ’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contacts: Emina Gamulin, 91��ɫ Media Relations and External Communications, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

The post To tackle TB, stigma needs to be erased, language transformed, researchers say appeared first on News@91��ɫ.