Head of Centre
Jean-François Guégan
Jean François Guégan is Director of Research at the IRD (UMR GEMI 2724). He has written 110 international scientific articles, published 6 scientific works and given 60 conferences. He is a member of study and advisory groups organised by the American National Science Foundation, the United Nations Programme for the Environment and the World Health Organisation. He is a member of the scientific committees of the Haut Conseil de la Santé Publique (HCSP – High Committee for Public Health) and the Agence Française de la Sécurité Sanitaire de l’Environnement et du Travail (AFSSET – French Agency for Environmental and Occupational Health Safety). He was recently co-chairman of an interministerial working group on the impact of climate change on health, the response and its associated costs in France.
To be published: Guégan JF and Choisy M. (eds). Introduction à l’épidémiologie intégrative des maladies infectieuses et parasitaires [Introduction to integrative epidemiology of infectious and parasitic diseases]. De Boeck Université/IRD/EHESP (2008).
Partners
IRD
CNRS
Montpellier University
Strategic objectives
- Understand the history of interaction between groups of people, infectious agents and the environment
- Understand the consequences of the current globalisation process (climate change, erosion of biodiversity, land management, air transport, international trade, etc) on the emergence and propagation of infectious agents among the population
- Describe the current emergence of infectious agents, understand the interaction of the various parameters and model it
- Analyse the effects of vaccinations and drugs on the ecology (transmission) and evolution (selection-adaptation) of infectious agents
- Propose alternative solutions for controlling and combating infectious diseases and inform the public health authorities
Personnel
The CiMMI has an initial core of research scientists and lecturers (40 permanent and 18 non-permanent) from the combined research unit 2724 IRD/CNRS/Montpellier University, based in Montpellier, working on ecology and the evolution of infectious (in particular inter-tropical) diseases. In 3 to 4 years time), the CiMMI will be an international research centre, welcoming PhD students, scientists and visiting professors from abroad.
Missions
Most of the major American universities, in particular their public health schools, have research centres to analyse the consequences of globalisation on the transmission of infectious diseases. France does not currently have a centre of this kind.
The increase in volume and intensity of trans-border, intercontinental travel owing to trade liberalisation, modernisation and the speed of means of transport, the flows of people through migration and international tourism, galloping urbanisation in developing countries, revolutions in the food industry and the progress of modern agronomy and the adoption of certain ways of living and consumption are all part of the current globalisation process.
This will take place in a very different climatic context, significant erosion of biodiversity and natural ecosystems and bacterial resistance to current drugs, leading to new pathologies emerging or existing pathologies extending their geographical distribution. Although globalisation also brings systems that may have a positive impact, such as new technologies making it easier to monitor health, or the introduction of international strategies for disease prevention and vaccination, it is essential to analyse the direct or more indirect consequences on health.
Setting up an interdisciplinary Centre for Globalisation and Infectious Diseases attached to the EHESP provides this opportunity to study the current globalisation process and its consequences on international and national public health and also to provide France with a structure that is equivalent to the American centres for globalisation and health.
Scope
France, like other major Western countries, is setting up a research and education centre to understand, and be better equipped to anticipate the consequences of current globalisation (climate change, erosion of biodiversity, land management, air transport, international trade, resistance to drugs, etc) on the emergence and propagation of infectious agents. This Centre will provide research and education that is interdisciplinary and integrative – because globalisation is a complex process depending on many different factors – and of international excellence.
Drawing on the experience of the institutional partners of the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD – Development Research Centre), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS – National Scientific Research Centre) and Montpellier University, the Centre will train the future lecturers and civil servants in the new international health risks and the measures to be implemented as well as students and visiting personnel from abroad, in particular from the countries of the South who will be the first to have to adapt to the conditions of global change.
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