A panel of experts recently discussed COVID-19, vaccines, and predictions for future variants during a virtual event.

“ …

Though the ‘One Health’ approach is considered crucial to address governance challenges of zoonotic diseases, its implementation in practice remains quite limited. It is time for international law to catch up with global reality. But global health scholars can neither simply focus on the health sector nor limit their work to scientific and technological improvement. All will have to realize that food, trade, human rights, humanitarian relief, and the environment are critically important in improving health and reducing health inequalities.”

The writer is a former Senior Scientist, Central Pollution Control Board. Views expressed are personal

Abstract  Background

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a recently emerged coronavirus that is the causative agent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. COVID-19 in humans is characterized by a wide range of symptoms that range from asymptomatic to mild or severe illness including death. SARS-CoV-2 is highly contagious and is transmitted via the oral–nasal route through droplets and aerosols, or through contact with contaminated fomites. House flies are known to transmit bacterial, parasitic and viral diseases to humans and animals as mechanical vectors. Previous studies have shown that house flies can mechanically transmit coronaviruses, such as turkey coronavirus; however, the house fly’s role in SARS-CoV-2 transmission has not yet been explored. The goal of this work was to investigate the potential of house flies to mechanically transmit SARS-CoV-2. For this purpose, it was determined whether house flies can acquire SARS-CoV-2, harbor live virus and mechanically transmit the virus to naive substrates and surfaces.

Discussion

Overall, these studies demonstrated that house flies are indeed capable of acquiring, harboring and transmitting SARS-CoV-2. However, the low level of infectious virus carried by flies limits their capability for SARS-CoV-2 transmission. …

Conclusions

In the present study, we determined that house flies could readily acquire and harbor SARS-CoV-2 from virus-spiked medium or virus-spiked milk. However, only viral RNA but no infectious virus was recovered from any environmental samples. These data suggest that flies most likely do not play a significant role in transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to humans and susceptible animals. However, the house fly’s ability to harbor SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA for extended periods might offer a potential for its use as a xenosurveillance vector for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in communities, a technique which more traditionally has been used to survey blood-borne human pathogens by using hematophagous vectors [31, 32].

“…Preventing the next zoonotic pandemic: Around 60% of human infectious diseases have an animal origin, including the COVID-19 virus. The FAO’s plan to prevent the next zoonotic pandemic, therefore, entailed applying a One Health approach. This outlook recognizes the interconnectedness between animals, plants, humans and their environment to avoid future animal-origin pandemics. …”

Pork tapeworm: a parasite that afflicts poor, marginalised farming and rural communities within 56 countries across the globe. Matt Dixon looks at how a One Health strategy could drive down infections and prevent a major cause of epilepsy in low and middle income countries, neurocysticercosis.

Matthew A. Dixon 23 Apr 2021

 “… T. solium is a complex One Health problem that thrives on the close interaction between pigs, people, and places.

One Health has been defined as:

“The recognition that the health of humans, animals and ecosystems are interconnected”. …”

“… Similarly, the idea of global health recognizes that the obstacles to health differ among populations, that socioeconomic factors are central determinants of health outcomes, and that wealth and health are connected. Finally, one health observes that the health of people, wild and domesticated animals, and natural living systems are also connected. …”

“ … On Wednesday, April 28, AUC and the Caribbean Center for Disaster Medicine will host a 2021 International Conference featuring global disaster medicine thought leaders from across disciplines including medicine, nursing, public health, veterinary medicine, government and more. The focus of the day will be prevention, preparedness, response, mitigation and recovery from all-hazards events.

According to a 2020 report published by the US Agency for International Development and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, disasters claimed approximately 1.23 million lives and affected a total of over 4 billion people between 2000 – 2019. Natural disasters affect everyone, from the elderly, families and children to pets and livestock. This year’s conference will highlight this concept of One Health, the idea that Zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19 are more likely to emerge as the link between humans and animals strengthens. …”

Heard on All Things Considered

Audio will be available later today.

“In movies such as Contagion, a pandemic begins in a flash. A deadly virus spills over from an animal, like a pig, into humans and then quickly triggers an outbreak.

But that’s not actually what happens, says Dr. Gregory Gray* at the Duke Global Health Institute. “It’s not like in the movies,” he says, “where this virus goes from a pig in Indonesia and causes a pandemic.” …

… Now, writing in the journal Viruses, Gray and his colleagues propose an alternative approach to hunting down new viruses, which, they believe, will have a better chance of stopping the next pandemic.

The approach takes into account the latest information about how human pathogens emerge from wildlife and how pandemics begin.

*Note:  Gregory C. Gray MD, MPH, FIDSA is a member of the One Health Initiative team’s Advisory Board.

19 April 2021  Statement

 The seventh meeting of the Emergency Committee convened by the WHO Director-General under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) regarding the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) took place on Thursday, 15 April 2021 from 12:00 to 16:30 Geneva time (CEST).

“One Health

Promote One Health approaches to better understand and reduce the risk of spill-over of emerging infections from animal to human populations and from humans to animals, including from domestic animals.

Work with partners to develop and disseminate joint risk-based guidance for regulation of wet markets and farms to reduce transmission of novel pathogens from humans to animals and vice-versa.

One Health

Strengthen regulation of wet markets and discourage the sale or import of wild animals that pose a high risk of transmission of novel pathogens from animals to humans or vice versa.

Conduct risk-based monitoring of animal populations to reduce disease transmission from animals to humans. Monitoring efforts should prioritize potential high-risk animal populations that may become reservoirs or lead to emergence of novel viruses or variants.”

Project description

Title: Global Project on Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness, One Health
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Global
Overall term: 2021 to 2024

“ … The pathogen causing this pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, has drawn attention to the importance of zoonotic diseases, in other words diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans. Many infectious diseases that are widespread among humans have their origin in the animal realm. Experts estimate that there are still around 1.7 million unknown viruses in wild mammals and birds. Of these, approximately 700,000 have the potential to cross over to humans.  …

…  The term ‘One Health’ stands for an end-to-end, interdisciplinary approach. It strives to improve global health and reduce risks. To this end, One Health considers interdependencies and interactions between human, animal and environmental health. …

 … One Health is committed to preventive measures in all three areas. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) strives to mainstream this approach in international (development) cooperation across different sectors. … ”

HEALTH, POLITICS & FOREIGN AFFAIRS, SOCIETY

April 14, 2021

by *Richard Seifman – Board Member, United Nations Association-National Capital Area

*Note: Seifman is a member of the One Health Initiative Advisory Board

“La Convergencia de la Medicina Humana y la Medicina Veterinaria” [Spanish]

Apr 7, 2021

Source: CDC

The Ohio State University Global One Health initiative (GOHi) has been awarded $5.61 million in funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and bolster Ethiopia’s public health system capacity for small- and large-scale disease outbreaks and emergencies.

Since 2009, GOHi has been on the front lines in Ethiopia working with in-country partners to strengthen capacity using a One Health approach—one that brings together multiple disciplines working globally to address the spread of disease, promote health and emphasize the connection among humans, animals, plants and the environment.

As new diseases emerge, the need for health system preparedness across the globe is vital for nations to prevent spread of pathogens, detect and report epidemics, and respond to and mitigate the spread of those epidemics. The current COVID-19 pandemic urgently underscored these needs. Under-preparedness in one country, is a global risk to all. …

HEALTH, POLITICS & FOREIGN AFFAIRS, SOCIETY

April 8, 2021

‘One Health’ initiatives, by their multidisciplinary nature, entail working across ministries and navigating tacit institutional hierarchies and allocating leadership roles. This holistic view of health is important in the post-pandemic scenario.

Helena Chapman
BS ’03, MPH ’05, Ph.D ’16 |  Arlington, VA

TITLE: Associate Program Manager, Health and Air Quality Applications, NASA Applied Sciences Progam
COMPANY: Booz Allen Hamilton/NASA
INDUSTRY: Government Services