An Evaluation of One Health Approaches to Global Disease Surveillance and Capacity Building PDF Download

Author: Jessica Smith Schwind
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781303792618
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Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Infectious diseases, old and newly emerging, are a constant threat to public health. With the majority of emerging human infectious diseases coming from zoonotic origins, research at the interface between animals and humans has become increasingly important. Currently, the 'One Health' approach is a prominent guiding strategy in several research initiatives, scientific conferences/programs and surveillance systems whose aim is to minimize the risk of the zoonotic transmission of disease. The One Health philosophy is a transdiciplinary approach through which organizations promote cooperation and collaboration between human, animal and ecosystem health professionals. Two areas of concentration in the war against infectious diseases have focused on disease surveillance and in-country capacity building for rapid disease detection and response. Three studies were conducted in order to better understand programs that operationalize the One Health approach in disease surveillance and/or build capacity for detection and response. Chapter 2 of the dissertation explored the similarities and differences among the perspectives of key stakeholders (e.g. wildlife officials and project scientists) regarding priority interfaces, opportunities and challenges facing wildlife disease surveillance today. Chapter 3 assessed the value of including local media surveillance of health events alongside the current digital media surveillance through the implementation of a structured program in developing countries with limited internet connectivity. Finally, Chapter 4 examined the long-term impact of an intensive, One Health-focused training program that aimed to build human capacity within the ecosystem health discipline. Results from the first study showed agreement among both stakeholder groups, wildlife officials and project scientists, that a lack of sustainable funding across regions was the greatest challenge for conducting wildlife surveillance for zoonotic pathogens. The greatest opportunity for conducting wildlife disease surveillance identified most frequently by wildlife officials as important was increasing communication or coordination among agencies, sectors or regions, whereas the most frequent opportunities identified as important by project scientists were increasing human capacity, increasing laboratory capacity and the growing interest or awareness regarding wildlife disease or surveillance programs. For programmatic improvement, prominent points of animal-human contact, such as butchering wildlife, shared water sources and areas of land use change were identified as interfaces where more attention was needed due to the perceived importance by wildlife officials. A One Health approach to capacity building that improves zoonotic pathogen surveillance in wildlife on a global scale is forward thinking, including breaking down barriers across ministries and sectors to enable sufficient manpower and funding to facilitate efficient targeting of high risk interfaces for zoonotic disease transmission. Findings from the second study showed that local media surveillance (LMS) as a disease detection tool filled gaps in digital surveillance network coverage by contributing valuable localized information on health events to the global HealthMap database. A total of 87 health events were reported through the LMS program, including 71 unique reports not found in HealthMap. It was also observed that participation from the local population and proper source selection was crucial to the success of this program. The timely identification of disease outbreaks near points of emergence or the recognition of factors associated with a potential outbreak continues to be an important component of any comprehensive surveillance system for monitoring disease activity across populations. Given this fact, it was observed that the LMS program with its minimal resource commitment could be one tool used to address the information gap seen in global `hotspot' regions where disease emergence is likely to occur. In the final study, an impact evaluation of the Envirovet Summer Institute was conducted and data revealed that a large majority of alumni respondents had held or currently held a position in the ecosystem health profession since their participation in Envirovet. It was also determined that the reach of Envirovet went beyond the participants themselves, influencing local organizations, programs, colleagues, family and friends. Envirovet inspired past participants to not only make environmentally-conscience lifestyle changes within their personal lives, but also spurred them to make changes professionally, whether it was through developing similar ecosystem health programs in their communities or regions, guiding on-the-job decisions or strengthening network contacts. The benefit of adopting a One Health approach was clearly seen in this evaluation, and similar educational or training programs could benefit from developing and applying a comparable evaluation plan to better understand long-term impacts on participants in order to guide this continuously evolving field. Results from this research showed the importance of a One Health approach to investigating and managing emerging health threats, and the methodology used in this dissertation may be beneficial in evaluation of other One Health programs in order to determine utility, effectiveness and funding priorities for other organizations. Zoonoses represent such a large part of public health risk today and despite the research that has been published proving this fact, programs that address zoonotic threats are constantly in peril. As funding for health programs are strained, focusing on effective, evidence-based practices has become more important than ever. This research showed that promoting awareness and participation in One Health activities, whether it is through the incorporation of stakeholder perspectives, the training of workers to adopt a new way of thinking or empowering a population to scan and report local diseases of global importance, was a crucial component of ensuring not only the short-term success, but also the long-term mainstreaming of One Health programs.