DGHI Turns to Data to Unravel Climate Impacts in the Amazon

Leaders from Duke and DGHI are headed to Manaus, Brazil, to kick off a new effort to accelerate data-driven research into the health impacts of climate changes across the Amazon rainforest, one of the world’s most important and fragile ecosystems. 

The Duke contingent will join researchers from 12 institutions across Brazil to officially inaugurate the Amazon Climate and Health Observatory, one of four regional research hubs launched through DGHI’s Climate and Global Health Initiative (CGHI) to spur locally grounded research on the growing health implications of changing weather patterns and environmental conditions.

Capitalizing on established partnerships in some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions, the observatories synthesize data on climate patterns, health outcomes and other social and demographic factors to aid researchers in understanding how environmental changes are affecting human health. Creating uniform structures for these data allows researchers to quickly see trends across time and location, while also providing a forum to share resources and insights. 

DGHI launched the first of these observatories in East Africa in August 2025 and one covering South and Southeast Asia earlier this summer. A fourth observatory focusing on North Carolina and the U.S. South wil be formalized later this year. 

“These aren’t four separate projects. They form a network, and increasingly the connections run site to site,” says Mercedes Bravo, Ph.D., an assistant professor of global health who co-leads the CGHI. “Insights from one region often turn out to be relevant to another, and our partner communities are as much a source of that knowledge as we are.”

The Brazil meeting, taking place from July 30 to August 4, will center on understanding and mitigating health challenges confronting the nearly 50 million people who live and work in the vast Amazon rainforest, which spans nine countries and is home to many Indifenous communities that experience significant barriers in accessing health services. In recent years, prolonged periods of drought have led to wildfires and historically low water levels across the Amazon, increasing the risks of chronic and infectious diseases. 

Attendees will include DGHI Director Chris Beyrer; M.D., Toddi Steelman, Ph.D., Duke’s  vice president and vice provost for climate and sustainability; and Robert Tighe, M.D., director of the Duke School of Medicine’s Climate and Health Education and Research Initiative. The gathering is co-sponsored by DGHI’s Global Emergency Medicine Innovation and ImplementationResearch Center (GEMINI) and the Fundação de Medicina Tropical Heitor Vieira Dourado in Manaus.  

“As a hotspot for biodiversity, the impact of climate change on the Amazon is of particular concern for health outcomes globally,” says Joao Vissoci, Ph.D., an associate professor of global health and emergency medicine and co-director of GEMINI. “We anticipate this convening will be the first step in building a network within the observatories that will combine discovery, data insights and community perspectives.”

While climate change is affecting health in all of the regions, each is facing unique challenges, says Bravo. In East Africa, for example, warming temperatures are shifting patterns of malaria and increasing food insecurity across the region, placing those issues at the top of the agenda for DGHI’s launch of the East Africa observatory, which was held at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Moshi, Tanzania, in August 2025.

The South and Southeast Asia observatory launch, which was held May 30-June 1, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, put a lens on the special problems climate change brings for island nations and communities. Co-sponsored by the SingHealth Duke-NUS Global Health Institute (SDGHI) in Singapore, the event explored emerging health problems such as a rise in incidence of chronic kidney disease among agricultural workers in Sri Lanka. Participants also heard a progress report from students on a Duke Bass Connections team that is collecting heat exposure data and narratives from Sri Lankan residents about how increasing heat puts stress on their health and daily lives. 

The final planned observatory will allow Duke researchers to test and apply climate solutions close to home. North Carolina is hardly immune to the effects of climate change, with stronger storms causing more frequent coastal flooding, heat waves impacting large urban centers, and shifting weather patterns affecting mountain ecosystems. 

“It’s a natural proving ground, and the learning runs both ways,” Bravo says. “What we develop here informs our work elsewhere, and what we learn in other observatories shapes how we work in North Carolina.”