Climate change is damaging global efforts to reduce the child mortality rate to fewer than 25 deaths per 1,000 live births in children under 5 by 2030. In Pakistan, the under-five child mortality rate is 67 deaths per 1000 live births, and climate-accentuated diseases such as lower respiratory tract infections, diarrhea, and malaria are responsible for more than half of childhood deaths. Climate change also indirectly affects child health through sweltering temperatures, flooding disasters, and erratic rainfall patterns that impact food security.

For this seed grant project, researchers will investigate the direct and indirect impacts of extreme weather events and weather anomalies on child mortality in Pakistan to inform mortality prevention strategies. This includes understanding the causal association between weather events and related child mortality, as well as quantifying the weather events that impacted child mortality. Ultimately, the project seeks to provide health policymakers and public health leaders with the information required to avoid preventable deaths among children from low-income households.

“I am passionate about understanding the impacts of extreme weather events and weather anomalies on child health and weather-accentuated child mortality,” said Dr. Amna Tariq, a principal investigator on the project and Fogarty postdoctoral scholar of infectious diseases in the Stanford Department of Pediatrics. “This project will allow me to understand the causal mechanisms and trends underlying weather-accentuated child mortality in Pakistan, a low-middle income country that has one of the highest under-5 child mortality rates in the world.”

Principal Investigators:

Amna Tariq, Fogarty Postdoctoral Scholar of Infectious Diseases, Stanford Department of Pediatrics

Desiree LaBeaud, Professor of Pediatrics – Infectious Diseases, Stanford Department of Pediatrics – Infectious Diseases

Funder:

Stanford Maternal and Child Health Research Institute