Ruth Colagiuri - Public Health
Associate Professor Ruth Colagiuri leads the health Theme of the University of Sydney Institute for Sustainable Solutions. She is the director of The Diabetes Unit of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney and leads the activities of the Oxford Health Alliance (OxHA) Asia-Pacific Centre.
Strategies for chronic disease prevention and care
“Climate change should not only be seen as an environmental issue, but as much an issue of growing poverty, rising inequity and lack of education” (Strand et al, 2007)
Heat stress, bush fires, flooding, droughts, superbugs and a resurgence of old infections are among our emerging health problems, as is possible conflict over scarce essential resources like food and water. However, the greatest but least recognised threats are obesity and chronic diseases such heart disease, diabetes, cancers, and chronic lung disease which now account for over 60% of the world’s deaths. These conditions are most manifest in developing countries and lower socioeconomic sectors of developed societies.
Associate Professor Ruth Colagiuri has made a significant contribution to sustainability through her extensive work in chronic disease prevention and control in the Pacific Islands – notably in Tonga, and Vanuatu and Nauru where she currently leads capacity-building projects.
She has developed population strategies for diabetes and related chronic conditions in Australia, the western Pacific Region and sub-Saharan Africa which are increasingly predicated on the impact of chronic diseases on human suffering and poverty, intergenerational equity and the role of health as a core prerequisite for economic growth and stability.
Associate Professor Colagiuri moved to the University of Sydney in 2005 to establish OxHA’s Asia-Pacific Centre. She was instrumental in organising OxHA’s 2008 Summit: Building a Healthy Future and was the instigator and chief architect of the ensuing Sydney Resolution – a global call to action on the common causes and solutions to the global chronic disease pandemic and climate change.
She has a keen interest in the role of the law in mitigating unhealthy and unsustainable environments, and in the role of industry and business to achieve sustainable health solutions, and has published many papers on the subject.