Ethnohealth AI

ENVIRONMENTAL WOMEN ORG

Ethnohealth AI

AI-powered indigenous early warning system transforming traditional medicine into predictive climate health intelligence: Ethnohealth

Santa Marta, Magdalena, Colombia

Colombia

Nonprofit

In 40,000 hectares of the Colombian Andean mountains, 5,000 Indigenous people from the Narakajmanta, Arahuac, Kogui, and Wiwa territories face recurrent outbreaks of dengue, malaria, Chagas, leishmaniasis, and other vector-borne diseases intensified by climate change. Prolonged droughts lasting up to nine months followed by intense rains create micro-environments for Aedes, Anopheles, and other vectors. Community records estimate that nearly 60% of women and youth who collect water have experienced symptoms compatible with these diseases. The core problem is not only exposure—it is invisibility. Most cases are treated by traditional doctors under legitimate Indigenous governance but never enter WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION-WHO. Without those early signals, authorities cannot anticipate outbreaks or allocate preventive resources. The result is a reactive health model in territories where climate change is expanding vector ranges between 500 and 1,500 meters in altitude. In Ette-Ennaka indigenous reserve, climate change is increasing the geographic spread of vector-borne diseases (new high: 500m-1500m), placing billions at risk. Yet surveillance systems rarely integrate community-based or Indigenous health intelligence. This structural blind spot—where frontline human sensing is disconnected from predictive public health systems—is the specific gap we address. ***See problem in detail at: https://narakajmanta.org/boletin-004-sistema-de-monitoreo-territorial-en-salud-indigena-narakajmanta-ette-ennaka/

Our solution is Ethnohealth (https://narakajmanta.org/appsalud/), an artificial intelligence platform designed to translate Indigenous traditional medicine into a climate–epidemiological early warning system usable by the WHO. Ethnohealth operates through three integrated layers: 1. Structured capture at the real point of care (Indigenous epidemiological data registration): Ette-Ennaka traditional doctors record, in a bilingual and georeferenced format, diagnoses, treatments, and territorial observations associated with diseases such as dengue, malaria, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis within Indigenous reserves. The system operates under principles of Indigenous data sovereignty and is designed to function in low-connectivity environments. 2. Predictive analysis through artificial intelligence (translation of holistic health knowledge into epidemiological variables): The application integrates traditional clinical variables, microclimatic indicators (temperature, precipitation, humidity), and vector patterns. An ontological translation engine converts ancestral diagnostic categories into comparable epidemiological variables, using supervised models such as Random Forest and Bayesian approaches. 3. Generation of interoperable outputs (actionable intercultural information): Ethnohealth produces technical reports and risk maps compatible with surveillance standards such as those of the World Health Organization, supporting prevention planning, budget allocation, medicine distribution, deployment of medical personnel, and environmental actions to reduce infection hotspots by Colombian health authorities. Ethnohealth converts indigenous clinical knowledge into Western medical information.

Ethnohealth directly serves 5,000 Indigenous people from the Narakajmanta, Arahuac, Kogui, and Wiwa territories across 40,000 hectares in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. These communities live in geographically isolated areas with limited connectivity and minimal integration into national epidemiological surveillance systems. They are currently underserved in two critical ways. First, although traditional doctors provide frontline care for vector-borne diseases such as dengue, malaria, Chagas, and leishmaniasis, most cases remain unregistered in formal surveillance systems. Second, climate change—prolonged droughts followed by intense rainfall—has intensified vector proliferation, yet early warning mechanisms do not capture community-level signals in real time. Community records indicate that nearly 60% of women and youth who collect water have experienced symptoms compatible with these diseases. The beneficiaries of the program are 5,000 NARAKAJMANTA, ARAHUAC, KOGUI Y WIWA indigenous people. Their territory covers 14,400 hectares; this program covers 9800ha. The beneficiaries are detailed below: 500 NARAKAJMANTA indigenous families (5,000 beneficiaries): (i) By gender: ● 2600 Female ● 2300 male ● 100 non-binary indigenous people. (ii) By age: ● < 18 years: 1350 ● 18-35 years: 2750 ● > 35 years: 900 This program has the potential for replication (to other indigenous reserves around the world), scalability (to address the entire spectrum of diseases), and sustainability (to raise financial resources for payments to indigenous traditional healers).