One Health gains momentum in Africa but room exists for improvement

Fasina, Folorunso O.; Bett, Bernard K.; Dione, Michel M.; Mutua, Florence; Roesel, Kristina; Thomas, Lian F.; Kwoba, Emmah; Ayebazibwe, Chrisistom; Mtika, Nebart; Gebeyehu, Daniel Teshome; Mtui-Malamsha, Niwael; Sambo, Maganga; Swai, Emmanuel S.; Bebay, Charles

doi:10.1016/j.onehlt.2022.100428

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…While it is understood that this work is almost completely externally funded, it is acknowledged that there is a need to ramp up local and national resources to rapidly expand the pool of trainees and place them where they are most needed in order to meet the epidemio-surveillance needs of Kenya. Over-dependency on externally sourced funds have been identified as a limitation to scale up the implementation of best initiative in countries of Africa (14)(15)(16)(17).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building subnational capacities in animal health to deliver frontline cross-sectoral health services in Kenya

Sitawa,

Tenge,

Chepkorir

et al. 2023

Front. Vet. Sci.

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IntroductionOperationalizing effective subnational veterinary services as major contributor to disease surveillance, reporting, diagnoses and One Health requires resources and mindset change. Here we describe workforce capacity building in animal health in Kenya and an approach that can be used to skill-up this workforce to respond beyond animal health challenges to emergent One Health realities and public health emergencies. Furthermore, triggering a paradigm shift has been identified for impactful delivery of health services, thus mindset change are important for learning new skills, but they also affect the way that we think about everything, for instance training in field epidemiology. Emphasis was therefore placed on skills, beliefs, and mindset shift.MethodsContextualized within the Kenyan environment, this description identifies problems likely to be found elsewhere: They are (a) The limited programs that offer structured and routine on-the-job training for animal health workers; (b) Unequal distribution and inadequate quantity and quality of highly skilled workforce with appropriate technical training and scientific skills to combat public (and animal) health challenges at the frontline; (c) Health challenges occasioned by climate change and drought, including feed, and water scarcity; and (d) Inadequate contingency, preparedness, and response planning for effective deployment of ready-to-trigger workforce capacity. In-Service Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Training (ISAVET) is a four-month long training program targeted at capacity building of frontline animal health professionals. The training, which is currently implemented in 17 African countries, is innovative and a customized field epidemiology program, which responds to specific needs in animal health and contribute to approaches utilizing One Health.ResultsSeveral trainees have marked mindset change as shown in the outputs and outcomes. Positive attitudes towards improving animal health surveillance were noted during the evaluation process.Discussion and ConclusionMost existing workforce capacities in the animal and public health systems were built for specific fields, and hardly respond optimally for cross-sectoral purposes. We proposed customised in-service applied veterinary epidemiology training that bypasses narrow-scoped workforce development but meets multifunctional, multidisciplinary and multisectoral needs before and during emergencies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building subnational capacities in animal health to deliver frontline cross-sectoral health services in Kenya

Sitawa,

Tenge,

Chepkorir

et al. 2023

Front. Vet. Sci.

Self Cite

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“…Most African countries are poor and located in areas at high risk of disease emergence due to their climate, proximity to risk areas, and human activities. Therefore, the pooling of funds and One-Health-type policies would be very useful, both in the reduction of unnecessary expenditure and in the establishment of priority policies related to the surveillance and control of emerging or re-emerging diseases [ 4 ]. The challenges in Africa lie in the application of trans/interdisciplinary strategies, the creation of surveillance and local control posts, mobile laboratories for screening cases, establishing maps of human population exposure to wildlife, creating maps of the distribution of disease vector species and associated diseases, regulating the consumption of high-risk foods, and establishing compliant breeding policies thanks to a network for animal-breeding-site surveillance.…”

Section: Challenges and Difficulties Of One Health Approaches In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The problems lie in food and livestock provisions to ensure that the growing demand is met, better health provision, disease control, nutrition, reduction in space, and livestock activities. These activities lead to increased deforestation and, therefore, ecosystem disruption, with significant growth in animal abundance within shared human–animal spaces [ 4 ]. This ecosystem disruption can also lead to epidemics affecting both animals and humans.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, the animals affected have to adapt to their new environments, for example, by changing their feeding grounds and settling increasingly close to livestock breeding areas [ 8 , 31 ]. In turn, wild animal and other vector species of emerging or re-emerging diseases will infect domestic animals via contact with bites, food sources and/or other elements, leading to contamination chains that reach humans [ 4 ]. The balance between biodiversity and the emergence of infectious diseases increases with population density and the level of population precariousness, animal breeding behavior, deforestation, hunting, lack of socio-sanitary hygiene, and the settling in areas where infected animals are present.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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One Health Approach to Arbovirus Control in Africa: Interests, Challenges, and Difficulties

Massengo,

Tinto,

Simonin

2023

Microorganisms

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The “One Health” concept considers that human and animal health, and ecosystems are closely related and aims to make a link between ecology and human and veterinary medicine. Due to the explosion in population growth along with the geographic and climatic conditions (equatorial and/or tropical climate), Africa is becoming a major hotspot for various socio-health issues associated with infectious diseases, including arboviruses. The incontestable advantages of a One Health approach in Africa lie in the fight against pathogens, such as arboviruses, and in the preservation of environmental, animal, and human health to ensure that the increasing high needs of this population are met as well as their protection against potential epidemics. The One Health strategy gives us a glimpse of the difficulties and challenges that the African continent faces. The importance of this approach in Africa is to establish guidelines and strategies for effective solutions and changes in behavior and harmful activities. Overall, the establishment of high-quality global health policies in the framework of the global health standards program would provide healthy and sustainable human–animal–environmental interactions for the welfare of all.

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“…Food security impairs the quality of life of a substantial proportion of the world's population and is a present concern in the lives of many Zimbabwean students, as well as contributing to challenges in environmental health. This tension is especially due to efforts to secure animal-based food for a growing population, with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) being an emerging challenge at the One Health intersection (Fasina et al, 2022;Zinsstag, 2021). AMR can be described as a process resulting in microbes developing resistance to antimicrobials.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Being Literate about Health to Becoming Capable of Achieving Health: Health literacy capabilities of Zimbabwean school youth

Micklesson,

Usai,

Chinofunga

et al. 2023

SAJEE

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Food security is an enduring sustainability challenge in the Southern African region. Food availability, accessibility and affordability have profound health impacts and affect the quality of life of a substantial proportion of the world’s population. This article aims to explore, together with students in educational settings, questions about the relationships between food and health, including the contextual conditions of food availability, accessibility and affordability. This provides opportunities to re-embody food by contextualising it as part of natural and built environments, thus engaging with how challenges of human health intersect with animal and environmental health. The research centres on co-creating knowledge with youth based on their valued beings and doings about health and considers how their health goals relate to food and the sustainability challenges of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). By considering how youths’ understandings, evaluations and decisions regarding health, including setting health goals, intersect with the determinants of food, we come to consider their health literacy capabilities to achieve nonpredetermined health goals that align with their valued beings and doings. As such, the implementation gap between knowing and doing is bridged through practices of health and well-being contextually grounded in the lives and experiences of the student youth. Keywords: health literacy, health education, capabilities approach, antimicrobial resistance, knowledge co-creation

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One Health gains momentum in Africa but room exists for improvement

Cited by 7 publications

References 15 publications

Building subnational capacities in animal health to deliver frontline cross-sectoral health services in Kenya

Building subnational capacities in animal health to deliver frontline cross-sectoral health services in Kenya

One Health Approach to Arbovirus Control in Africa: Interests, Challenges, and Difficulties

From Being Literate about Health to Becoming Capable of Achieving Health: Health literacy capabilities of Zimbabwean school youth

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