Qatar experience on One Health approach for middle-east respiratory syndrome coronavirus, 2012–2017: A viewpoint

Abstract

The emergence of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus (MERS-CoV) in the Middle East in 2012 was associated with an overwhelming uncertainty about its epidemiological and clinical characteristics. Once dromedary camels ( Camelus dromedarius ) was found to be the natural reservoir of the virus, the public health systems across the Arabian Peninsula encountered an unprecedented pressure to control its transmission. This view point describes how the One Health approach was used in Qatar to manage the MERS-CoV outbreak during the period 2012–2017. One Health focuses on the association between the human, animals and environment sectors for total health and wellbeing of these three sectors. To manage the MERS outbreak in Qatar through a One Health approach, the Qatar National Outbreak Control Taskforce (OCT) was reactivated in November 2012. The animal health sector was invited to join the OCT. Later on, technical expertise was requested from the WHO, FAO, CDC, EMC, and PHE. Subsequently, a comprehensive One Health roadmap was delivered through leadership and coordination; surveillance and investigation; epidemiological studies and increase of local diagnostic capacity. The joint OCT, once trained had easy access to allocated resources and high risk areas to provide more evidence on the potential source of the virus and to investigate all reported cases within 24–48 h. Lack of sufficient technical guidance on veterinary surveillance and poor risk perception among the vulnerable population constituted major obstacles to maintain systematic One Health performance.

One Health in the context of coronavirus outbreaks: A systematic literature review

“…The actions at the human-animal interface displayed in Table 3 included measures to decrease the risk of viral shedding from human to human [ 37 , 38 ], from animal to animal [ 38 , 39 ], and from animal to human [ 40 ]. Further actions targeted the identification and understanding of pathogen reservoirs [ 38 , [41] , [42] , [43] , [44] , [45] , [46] , [47] , [48] ], and awareness-raising on the diseases [ 45 , [49] , [50] , [51] , [52] ]. The identified actions operated on various spatial levels: household level, i.e.…”

“…standardized protocols for the operation [ 38 ]; country and regional level, i.e. limitation of livestock mobility between neighbouring countries [ 38 ], improvement in the laboratories´ capacities [ 41 , 42 , [53] , [54] , [55] ], the collaboration between institutions for a coordinated response to outbreaks [ 56 ], and the improvement of surveillance and monitoring [ [57] , [58] , [59] , [60] , [61] , [62] ].…”

Characterization of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in the State of Qatar, February 28-April 18, 2020

“…The existing tracking, tracing and identification mechanism within the Ministry of Public Health, with proven effectiveness during the MERS-CoV outbreak, was expanded and put on alert. 14,15 Testing for suspected cases started on February 5, 2020, and the first case was recorded on February 28, 2020. We used the tracking and reporting data from the Ministry of Public Health to determine the number of new cases diagnosed per day and their demographic characteristics between February 28, 2020 (date of identification of first case in Qatar) and April 18, 2020 (11:00 AM local time).…”

Emerging pandemics: Lesson for one‐health approach

“…Economic analysis of this risk reduction and early detection, demonstrated a cost saving of 35% (Rostal et al, 2018). Qatar has successfully combated MERS-CoV through active surveillance, inter-sectoral collaboration and joint investigation through the One-Health approach (Farag et al, 2019). A similar study using a One-Health approach with an integrated human and animal disease laboratory in Winnipeg, Canada demonstrated cost savings of 26% per year (World Bank, 2012).…”