The Planetary Child Health and Enterics Observatory (Plan-EO): a Protocol for an Interdisciplinary Research Initiative and Web-Based Dashboard for Mapping Enteric Infectious Diseases and their Risk Factors and Interventions in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Abstract

Abstract Background: Diarrhea remains a leading cause of childhood illness throughout the world and is caused by various species of ecologically sensitive pathogens. The emerging Planetary Health movement emphasizes the interdependence of human health with natural systems, and much of its focus has been on infectious diseases and their interactions with environmental and human processes. Meanwhile, the era of big data has engendered a public appetite for interactive web-based dashboards for infectious diseases. However, enteric infectious diseases have been largely overlooked by these developments. Methods: The Planetary Child Health and Enterics Observatory (Plan-EO) is a new initiative that builds on existing partnerships between epidemiologists, climatologists, bioinformaticians, and hydrologists as well as investigators in numerous low- and middle-income countries. Its objective is to provide the research and stakeholder community with an evidence base for the geographical targeting of enteropathogen-specific child health interventions such as novel vaccines. The initiative will produce, curate, and disseminate spatial data products relating to the distribution of enteric pathogens and their environmental and sociodemographic determinants. Discussion: To date Plan-EO has compiled data from 23 studies comprising almost 80,000 stool samples from 35,000 children aged 0 – 59 months at 80 sites in 24 countries and georeferenced to over 9,000 unique locations, with DUAs for two further studies under negotiation. An initial analysis of Shigella has been published and has yielded detailed prediction maps.Results like these can be used to identify and target priority populations living in transmission hotspots and to provide an urgently needed evidence base for decision-making, scenario-planning. Study registration: PROSPERO protocol #CRD42023384709