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Ebola a wake up call for Ecohealth Alliance
Peter Daszak, President Ecohealth Alliance, in this short video reiterates on how Ebola was a wake up call for them and that their research at the Ecohealth alliance has shown that emergence of disease is a result of anthropogenic actions of man to the environment.
Oral cysticercosis: A contribution of dentists & clinicians to One Health?
Cysticercosis is prevalent in several parts of the world. It is endemic and one of the leading causes of acquired epilepsy[10] in developing countries, mainly in parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. This is especially in those areas with uncontrolled free range pig production, poor sanitation and where humans and animals live in close contact[1]. Its incidence is also increasing in developed countries as a result of migration of infected persons and frequent travel to and from endemic areas[27].
In man, cysticercosis frequently involves many parts of the body including the brain (causing fatal neurocysticercosis), subcutaneous tissues, heart, liver, lungs, peritoneum, skeletal muscles and the eye. Although oral involvement by cysticercosis is common in swine, this location is a very rare occurrence in humans[17, 27, 1] where it presents as a component of disseminated cysticercosis and often a diagnostic challenge to clinicians [14].
Brief overview of bovine brucellosis: The Kenyan perspective
Brucellosis is the most common and widespread of all bacterial zoonotic infections affecting man, livestock and wild animals (OIE., 2012; Corbel., 2006 and FAO., 2003) with significant socio-economic impacts and human suffering in endemic areas (Young., 1995; Boschiroli et al., 2001; McDermott., 2013). In Kenya, the nationwide prevalence of brucellosis in animals is unknown (ZDU., 2015) but the Zoonotic Disease Unit (ZDU) is in the process of determining the national prevalence and incidence through the current and ongoing study at Kajiado county in Kenya. Previous work by ZDU on brucellosis has been published on June this year 2015 as, “Sero-prevalence of Brucellosis in Humans and their Animals: A Linked Cross-sectional Study in Two Selected Counties in Kenya”
What are the alternatives for a Global One Health Governance Body?
Since there is no blueprint for making ‘One Health‘ operational, I agree with the Atlanta Report by Normandeau (2011) that the alternative is to have a ‘One Health Global Guidance Group’-G3 that will provide neutrality, credibility and built on the existing international, regional and sub-national platforms for interaction and outreach such as EcoHealth, so as to find practicable approaches that factor in the needs of all “actors” in developed and developing worlds.
Should we have a Global One Health Governance Body or not?
To start as off lets first adopt a definition for One Health as a movement dedicated to building new levels of trust and transparency between disciplines, nations, organizations, and people. Moreover, that One Health is a rational way of thinking that mirrors the reality of people‘s lives and livelihoods. Lets come back to our question, is leadership essential to One Health‘? Should we have a Global One Health Governance Body? Let‘s proceed and try to answer this question in the next few paragraphs.
What can people from different disciplines contribute to One Health?
For the One Health concept to move from “Vision to Fashion” an inter and cross disciplinary true partnership and cooperation is warranted among (but not limited to) the following disciplines:
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