International & Environmental Health
The Division of International and Environmental Health is the latest addition to ISPM. It was created in 2006 to provide a home to the growing number of projects in international and environmental health with the aim to make an important contribution to ISPM’s mission of promoting health through rigorous and interdisciplinary academic research, teaching and services internationally and nationally.
The International Health research group (led by Matthias Egger) conducts collaborative research on outcomes of Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) in lower income and industrialized countries (the ART-LINC and ART-CC cohort collaborations). Together with the University of Cape Town, this work will expand with the setting up of a network of sites in Southern Africa within the framework of the International epidemiological Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA). Marcel Zwahlen works with UNAIDS and partners in the South to model progression to eligibility for ART in low-income countries. Adriane Martin-Hilber contributes to the Sexual Health research group (led by Nicola Low), for example to a World Health Organization (WHO) project on sexuality and vaginal practices, a survey of Chlamydia control activities in the European Union and a project on the integration of sexual and reproductive health services.
Main focus of the Environmental Health research group are health effects of electromagnetic fields associated with the use of electricity and wireless telecommunication. This includes an international case-control study on mobile phone use and the risk of brain tumours in children and adolescents (the CEFALO project, in collaboration with the Swiss Childhood Cancer registry ) and a large cohort study in Switzerland on health related quality of life and radio frequency electromagnetic field exposure (the QUALIFEX study). The pediatric epidemiology research groups (led by Claudia Kuehni) focus on respiratory and endocrinology, gastroenterology and nephrology. Childhood cancer research is covered by the Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry and the psycho-oncology group. Adrian Spoerri and Marcel Zwahlen contribute to the Social Environment research group (led by Thomas Abel), using the data from the Swiss National Cohort .
