Departmental Affiliations
Contact Info
Research Interests
humanitarian emergencies; conflict; epidemics; refugee; population displacement; public health; communicable diseases; indicators; monitoring and evaluation; epidemiology
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Experiences & Accomplishments
My work at the Center for Humanitarian Health focuses on three main areas:
1) Operational monitoring and measurement methods for humanitarian settings: I have worked with WHO’s EMRO on implementing a regional monitoring framework for emergencies; and on public health indicators adapted to humanitarian contexts including Ukraine;
2) Infectious diseases outbreaks and response in crises: I worked in WHO’s monitoring and evaluation teams for the 10th Ebola outbreak in DRC, and for the COVID-19 pandemic, and investigated other disease outbreaks in refugee settings; I have led five case studies on the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 in humanitarian settings; investigated Rapid Response Teams for Cholera;
3) Health service provision in humanitarian settings: health service delivery in DRC, and nutrition program adaptations during COVID in South Sudan; strategies to maintain health service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. 4) Climate Change, Displacement, Conflict and Health: we are investigating the relationships of these four factors at global level, as well as in Iraq and Mali.
I am also working as Scientific Coordinator supporting the CHH-Lancet Commission on Health, Forced Displacement and Conflict. Before joining the Center for Humanitarian Health, Dr Altare worked at Action Against Hunger (ACF) as Senior Research Advisor; and as Research fellow at the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). Dr Altare has 15+ years of experience and has conducted field work in conflict and displacement settings in Africa, Asia, central America, the Eastern Mediterranean region and Europe.
Honors & Awards
Excellence in International Public Health Practice Award 2023, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Project: Infectious Disease Outbreaks in Humanitarian and Fragile Settings. Partnered with the WHO, UNHCR, and various international nongovernmental organizations to respond to and improve surveillance of outbreaks of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, cholera, and Ebola in humanitarian and fragile settings.
Select Publications
Selected publications
Altare C., Kostandova N.*, Hasan M A., Agbogan JA., Miah ML., IMPACT Bangladesh Team, Crockett H.*, Bates M.*, Leslie S., Tonon B., Antoine C., Spiegel P., “Health care utilization in Cox’s Bazar district, Bangladesh, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed-methods study among host communities”, Global Public Health, January 2024, https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2024.2305364
Altare C., Kostandova N., OKeeffe J., Hayek H., Fawad M., Khalifa A., Spiegel P., “COVID-19 epidemiology and changes in health service utilization in Azraq and Zaatari refugee camps in Jordan: a retrospective cohort study”, Plos Medicine, May 10, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003993
Altare C., Castelgrande V., Tosha M., Malembaka E. B., Spiegel P., “From insecurity to health service delivery: pathways and system response strategies in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo”, Global Health: Science and Practice, Dec 31, 2021, 9(4):915-927; https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-21-00107
OKeeffe J.*, Salem-Bango L., Desjardins M.R., Lantagne D., Altare C., Kaur G., Heath T., Rangaiya K., Obroh P. OO., Audu A., Lecuyot B., Zoungrana T., Ihemezue E. E., Aye S., Sikder M., Doocy S., Wang Q., Xiao M., Spiegel P.B., “Case-area targeted interventions during a large-scale cholera epidemic: A prospective cohort study in Northeast Nigeria”, PLoS Med, 2024 21(5): e1004404. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004404
Altare C., Bwenge E., Tosha M., Hook C., Ba H., Bikoro S., Scognamiglio T., Tappis H., Pfaffmann J., Balaluka G., Boerma T., Spiegel P., “Health services for women, children and adolescents in conflict-affected settings: experience from North and South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo”, May 27, 2020, Conflict and Health, Vol 14 (31), doi: 10.1186/s13031-020-00265-1
Altare C., Weiss W., Ramadan M.*, Tappis H., Spiegel P., “Measuring results of humanitarian action: adapting public health indicators to different contexts”, BMC Conflict and Health, Oct 2022, Vol 16 (54), https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-022-00487-5