World Health Organisation One Health learning materials

World Health Organisation One Health learning materials

by | Jul 19, 2019 | One Health

World Health Organisation One Health learning materials

The World Health Organisation has developed courses and training materials which are aimed at strengthening knowledge and competencies of public health professionals by taking into consideration the human-animal-environment interface.

There are two training packages of which:

1. The first one is a 90’ online course (One Health: Basics of multi-sectoral collaboration at the Human – Animal – Environment interface) and;
2. The second one is an entire training package for trainers (Module from IHR Training Toolkit: IHR implementation at the human-animal-environment interface).

Quick orientation: The online course is a good introduction to people without much One Health background while the second larger training package is a little more advanced and a good basis for workshops or students since it also includes practical examples of multi-sectoral response to specific diseases such as brucellosis, tb, rabies, RVF, etc.You can access and download all materials upon free registration at the WHO website at this link: https://extranet.who.int/hslp/?q=content/one-health-human-animal-environment-interface.

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An opportunity to ask any rabies or global health related questions

An opportunity to ask any rabies or global health related questions

by | Jul 16, 2019 | One Health

An opportunity to ask any rabies or global health related questions

On Thursday, 18th July 2019 Rabies Free Africa is partnering with MSD Animal Health and Mission Rabies at 9:00am EDT (6:00 am PST) to host the #RallyAgainstRabies Twitter chat.

Participants from all three organizations will be answering questions about global initiatives to eliminate human death from canine rabies. From Rabies Free Africa, there will be Dr Thumbi Mwangi representing Kenya (Rabies Free Kenya) and Dr. Guy Palmer representing the program as a whole.

Please spread the word with your colleagues and anyone else interested in global health issues. You can follow the discussion on Twitter using the hashtag #RallyAgainstRabies

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Why Some Havard Medical Students Are Starting Veterinary Rotations

Why Some Havard Medical Students Are Starting Veterinary Rotations

by | Jul 6, 2019 | My Write Ups, One Health

Why Some Havard Medical Students Are Starting Veterinary Rotations

“During medical school, students learn everything about the human body – but in Boston, a select group of Harvard medical students are learning about animals, too. It’s part of a collaborative program between Harvard Medical School and the Franklin Park Zoo called One Health, and it allows medical students to do a veterinary rotation during their final year of school.” Dana Jacobson reports from the CBS news

I capture a few statements from the interview as below:

  • Healthy people and animals depend on a healthy ecosystem, and a healthy ecosystem is richness of species/biodiversity. Healthy ecosystems also leads to healthy people
  • One of the student pediatrician stated, “I had no big expectations other than to just explore my curiosity and also have a chance to speak to veterinary doctors and learn from them. What was amazing was that from the very first day we could talk about very complex cases with the same language. I find myself thinking outside the box more often than I would have. My biggest impact was in my relationship to patients, especially as a pediatrician, and how I approach my patient. This gentle approach of gradually gaining trust with patients is something I gained from the veterinarians and animals I worked with.

 

  • Why are you better served by knowing more than just the human body? It is important to view the patient-doctor relationship within a larger framework. In medical school we learn how people living conditions, their income and occupations all impact their health. One Health is sort of an additional dimension to that. I think the more you can maintain that large framework in your approach to patient care, I think that serves everyone better.

  • Is One Health creating better doctors? Potentially yes, I think this will inform and will influence what they think about global health. When they are working in their own community and around the globe they will think differently about the health of their patients in the context of the health of the environment and animals.

View the full interview here: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/why-some-harvard-medical-students-are-starting-veterinary-rotations/

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Data sharing and how it can benefit your scientific career

Data sharing and how it can benefit your scientific career

by | May 15, 2019 | My Write Ups, One Health

Data sharing and how it can benefit your scientific career

An article by Gabriel Popkin appearing in Nature explores important benefits of sharing data and how this can grow your career. See below some highlights from the article: 

  • Opening up data can yield benefits: it can catalyse new collaborations, increase confidence in findings and generate goodwill among researchers.
  • Data sharing can benefit not just the recipients of data, but also the sharers. Papers that were based on openly shared data were published in journals of equal impact as often as were those based on non-shared data.
  • A major hindrance is concern about the legality of sharing data, especially when the research subjects are people, Tenopir has found. Researchers should also consider ethical issues before making data available on, for instance, rural villages or local environmental factors in low-income countries, which could compromise the privacy or well-being of residents.

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ABCs for Disease Control and Prevention (with pictures)

ABCs for Disease Control and Prevention (with pictures)

by | Apr 9, 2019 | My Write Ups, One Health

ABCs for Disease Control and Prevention (with pictures)

1. Regularly (after every 3 months) deworm your livestock, yourself and not forgetting your pets (dogs and cats). This will go a long way to control dangerous diseases like echinococcosis, coenurosis among others.

Deworming of a goat during a community outreach event organized by the Kenya Veterinarian Association

2. Vaccinate your livestock, your pets and your self against common vaccine-preventable diseases e.g. rabies. Picture this: you did not vaccinate your dog, it gets rabid, it goes ahead to bite your neighbour and a kid in the neighbourhood. The full course of PEP against rabies for your 2 neighbours will cost close to Kshs 30,000. Not forgetting the danger of losing your dog too! You could have prevented all these costs and losing your dog if you had just spent between Kshs 100-2000 in vaccinating your dog and protecting it for a whole year! 

 Vaccinating a dog during the Laikipia Rabies Vaccination campaign

 

3. Spray your livestock regularly to keep off vectors such as ticks and ensure to do away with any rodents such as rats which harbour very dangerous pathogens that can affect you or your animals.

 An attendant spraying of livestock in one of the livestock markets in western Kenya

 

4. Always wash your food thoroughly under running clean water, cook food well and serve food while hot!

Infographic courtesy of the ZooLinK project showing washing food and serving while hot

 

5. Always wash your hands thoroughly with running clean water and soap before eating, handling children and after handling animals or doing any work.

How to thoroughly wash your hands

 

6. Always wear personal protective equipment (PPE) when handling animals, working in the slaughterhouses, or doing designated works that require protective gear. PPE ensure the safety of you, the animal you are handling and whoever is around you.

Personal protective gear at the slaughterhouse

 

7. Place a footbath with a disinfectant at the entrance to your animal houses e.g. poultry or at gates of facilities dealing with infectious material to avoid the transfer of these bad germs to other farms.

 A footbath in one of the insitutions in Kenya to control and bio-contain pathogens

 

8. Always isolate dead or sick animals from the herd and immediately inform your animal health practitioner

 An isolation area for dead animals at the Mara Training Centre


9. Eat a balanced diet to boost your immunity to be able to defend you optimally. Remember to also give your calf enough colostrum (first milk from the cow) and proper nutrition because your calf/young animal is the future of your herd.

An Ankole calf suckling

 

10. If its a holiday and you are slaughtering an animal at home, ensure to always call your veterinarian to inspect the meat to avoid getting sick because of eating meat from an infected animal. In case you have symptoms such as stomach pains after eating any food please visit the nearest health centre immediately for a check-up.

 A liver fluke being collected from a bile duct as part of the surveillance activities by ZooLinK/ILRI team

 

11. Finally, always keep your environment clean and throw waste in designated areas. This will avoid our animals getting to eat plastic bags that make them sick (we also thank our Government of Kenya for banning the use of plastic bags).

 A huge plastic bag found in the rumen of a cow

 

Images in this post were taken while working for the following institutions or organisations: International Livestock Research Institute (ZooLinK project), Mara Training Centre, Kenya Veterinarian Association and Mpala Research Centre under the  Laikipia Rabies Vaccination campaign.

Are there any tips you’d like to also share on how to prevent and control diseases? Please drop your comment/ideas below.

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