Chelsea Wood

Parasitic diseases remain a major cause of death and disability in the developing world. Most of these “neglected tropical diseases” (NTDs) are worms with complex life cycles that connect them – and their human hosts – intimately with the environment.

I work on schistosomiasis, a water-borne NTD that affects more than 200 million people worldwide. My research focuses on the spatial scale of schistosomiasis transmission and aims to inform practical, ecologically based approaches to disease control.

This work is conducted in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team – The Upstream Alliance – and together we unravel the complex associations between the parasites, their human, livestock, and snail hosts, and environmental and socio-economic context.