Global Public Health – an agile response to COVID-19 pandemic

8 June 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is unquestionably the most significant event to occur within global public health in (at least) a generation. It will present serious challenges globally, well into the future, to equitable access to sustainable development, to sustainable economies and societies, and to the pursuit of human rights, good governance and social justice. The Elizabeth Blackwell Institute Global Public Health (GPH) research strand, which focuses on public health issues of global significance through interdisciplinary research, has adjusted its short-term priorities to respond to these challenges.

A focus on low- and middle-income countries

On 4 May the GPH strand announced a Rapid Response funding call for research into COVID-19 focusing on Low- and Middle-Income Country (LMIC) settings. The funding call aims to support work at the University of Bristol that has impact in this critically important area, promoting the welfare of developing countries as its main objective.

Helen Lambert, Professor of Medical Anthropology and co-lead for the Global Public Health strand said: “Research into COVID-19 is highly topical for this research strand, which is rooted in a cross-disciplinary approach to public health problems that, as the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically demonstrated, cannot effectively be tackled solely at local level or within the boundaries of single nation states.”

Successful projects

The successful research projects (listed below) are varied, covering a wide range of settings from Zimbabwe to Georgia and looking at how COVID-19 impacts on issues such as self-harm in Sri Lanka, sustainable development in Somalia/Somaliland and mental health and sleep patterns in children and adolescents.

Ross Booton: Estimating the impact of COVID-19 on HIV transmission and control among men who have sex with men in China
Celia Gregson: SARS-CoV-2 screening as part of new occupational health checks for front-line health care workers in Harare, Zimbabwe
David Gordon: Estimating the vulnerability of African girls and their families to COVID-19 infections
Eric Herring: COVID-19 response and sustainable development in Somalia/Somaliland: Phase 2
Laura Johnson: Staying active at home: the impact of COVID-19 movement restrictions on physical activity in a low-income semi-rural population
Dee Knipe: COVID-19 and self-harm in Sri Lanka
Josephine Walker: Epidemiology and transmission of COVID-19 in cases and close contacts in Georgia
Jian Zhao: Children and adolescents’ mental health and association with sleep pattern during the COVID-19 pandemic

These projects have been supported by the University of Bristol’s QR GCRF Strategy 2018-2021, which is funded through Research England.