One Health Publications

Tanzania

FAO pilots innovative tool to support One Health operationalization in United Republic of Tanzaniac

Format

News and Press Release

The Tanzania One Health Coordination Desk, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), brought together One Health stakeholders in the United Republic of Tanzania to review the One Health Monitoring Tool (OHMT), an innovative tool that will be used to monitor One Health progress and to assess and evaluate outcomes and operational level. The OHMT aims to improve transparency and support accountability relationships as countries prepare to respond to health threats. The information gathered during this two-day workshop will be used to improve the OHMT with a view to its final review and validation.

One Health is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems. It recognizes that the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants and the wider environment are closely linked and interdependent. Although there is increasing attention to One Health globally, applying One Health principles routinely remains a major challenge for the formulation of public policy, resource mobilization and sustainable implementation. It is therefore important to integrate the One Health approach into medicine, veterinary, environment, wildlife, public health, agriculture and other relevant disciplines to mitigate the burden of health threats and to implement mechanisms to evaluate and improve the operationalization of the One Health approach across sectors.

Until now, countries did not have a specific tool to assess and monitor their progress on One Health or produce accurate data on One Health operationalization at country and regional levels. With the OHMT, all countries, even those without National One Health platforms, will be able to coordinate and cooperate among sectors involved in health management to monitor One Health progress and evaluate One Health outcomes and operational level.

The Tripartite (FAO, the World Organisation for Animal Health [OIE] and the World Health Organization [WHO]) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are supporting implementation of the **One Health approach **at all levels to ensure that specialists in multiple sectors and disciplines work together to tackle threats to health and ecosystems, while addressing the collective need for clean water, energy and air and safe and nutritious food, taking action on climate change, and contributing to sustainable development.

During the opening remarks of the One Health Monitoring Tool pilot workshop, the representative of the Prime Minister’s Office, from the Disaster Management Department of the United Republic of Tanzania, Baltazary Leba, declared: “The One Health approach emphasizes the relatedness of human, animal and environmental health and the importance of transdisciplinary efforts in control and prevention of zoonotic diseases.” Representing FAO’s Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD), Niwael Mtui-Malamsha affirmed that “the systematic assessment of the One Health operationalization is important to reveal progress made and identify gaps to inform future One Health strategic planning.”

FAO to pilot tool in three other African countries

The One Health Monitoring tool was developed by FAO to support local, national and regional entities to assess progress and identify gaps in One Health operationalization. It is built on existing frameworks such as the World Bank’s operation framework for strengthening human, animal and environment public health systems at their interface, the One Health SMART tool developed by the University of Minnesota and the United States Department of Agriculture, and the One Health Assessment Planning for Performance (OH-APP) framework designed with funding from the** United States Agency for International Development (USAID)** under the Preparedness and Response Project. Experts from relevant stakeholders such as WHO Regional Office for Africa, OIE Africa, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the African Union – InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources and Regional Economic Communities were also consulted during the OHMT development.

FAO, through ECTAD, in collaboration with the National One Health platforms of member countries, will also organize pilot workshops in Cameroon, Ethiopia and Liberia that will bring together One Health actors to test and review the OHMT. These preliminary country assessments of the OHMT will improve its effectiveness, as they help to gather feedback from relevant sectors and disciplines at all levels of implementation.

• Open Access News
• Diseases & Conditions News

Gerald Misinzo and Mark Rweyemamu tells us about the decade of work done by the SACIDS Foundation for One Health to protect Sub-Saharan Africa from deadly infectious diseases, including COVID-19

Faced with the conundrum of a high burden of infectious disease yet a low capacity for its risk management, representatives of academic and research institutions in 5 Member States of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) – Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, resolved to form, in January 2008, the Southern African Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance (SACIDS) to address infectious diseases in the endemic settings of Africa. The Founding institutions peer-elected Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania to host the Secretariat and Headquarters of SACIDS. …

Review Articles

DECEMBER 9, 2021

Published: 17 November 2021

“… The Need for a Geopolitical Shift in Global Health

In September 2021, this video message from the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom was recorded for “Toward a pandemic treaty”, a meeting hosted by the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, USA. He broadly delineated what was needed for a geopolitical shift in global health – including attention to One Health – preparing the ground for discussions at the upcoming World Health Assembly two months later.

This is how we got to this point – moving towards stronger global preparedness and pandemic response. …”

Science 

30 NOV 2021 9:26 AM AEDT

HEALTH • NEWS • WORLD

Published on November 26, 2021

The youth wing of the Mata Amritanandamayi Math (AYUDH) organises bicycle rallies – with the theme, “Cycle Against AMR—Go Blue”, across the country and abroad to create awareness among the public about the need for hygiene practices, and avoidance of misuse of antibiotics to contain antimicrobial resistance.

“ … Dr. Bipin Nair, Dean, Amrita School of Biotechnology, in his welcome address emphasized the need for adopting ‘One Health’, a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach, which envisages the health of not only people but also animals, plants, and the shared environment. Delivering his keynote address, Dr. Victor Nizet, University of California, UC San Diego School of Medicine, said that antimicrobial resistance represents a complex global problem, which needs innovative and effective remedies as well as collective action through international cooperation.  …”

Home > Cover Story > Connecting the Dots >

November 2021   |   Volume 23 No. 1

 Health threats from animal and environmental sources are on the rise – not just from COVID-19, but antimicrobial resistance and other infectious diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). HKU academics have been at the forefront producing collaborative, multidisciplinary research to identify and control these threats.

“… Operationalizing the One Health approach is essential to better prevent, detect and control diseases that spread between animals and humans, to tackle AMR, to reduce food safety risks, to prevent environment-related human and animal health threats, and to combat other challenges.

Implementing this approach is critical for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. …”

“…

It is said that to tackle AMR a ‘One Health Approach’ is needed. Can you describe what is meant by this and how it would work?

The causes and impacts of AMR are linked to human, animal, and environmental health. There are resistant microorganisms in humans, animals, food, and the environment that can move in the ecosystem. The main driver of this resistance is the use of antimicrobials in human, animal health, and food animal production. Therefore, addressing AMR requires a holistic and multi-sectoral approach – referred to as the “One Health” approach.

One Health promotes coordination and collaboration of human, animal, plant, and environmental health programs, aiming to improve prevention and response of health threats, such as AMR, that arise from the interconnection between humans, animals, and the environment.

Solutions implemented through the One Health approach gather diverse specialties to work together.     By designing and implementing multi-sectoral programs, policies, legislation, and research with individuals working in human, terrestrial and aquatic animal and plant health, in food and feed production, and environmental issues, AMR can be effectively addressed and broadly communicated to achieve better One Health outcomes.  …”

By Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP | November 19, 2021

 “ … There are other less risky ways of preventing pandemics than conducting gain-of-function research on pathogens. Many pathogens capable of causing human outbreaks originate in animals, and surveillance of wild and domestic animals for signs of illness makes sense. This is the One Health approach. With One Health, the goal is to prevent the spread of deadly zoonotic microbes into humans through improved communication and collaboration between human and veterinary medicine.

Preventing pandemics through rapid identification and response is an important goal; the One Health approach that emphasizes animal and human health and disease surveillance is the key to doing this, not risky gain-of-function research.”

Press release

From Department of Health;  Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Published on 18 November 2021

Home  >  Headlines  >  NEWS

Posted: Tuesday 16 November, 2021 at 12:44 PM

By: (RUSVM), Press Release

One Health’s integrated approach to animal health, human health and environmental health is increasingly seen as vital to healthy communities; RUSVM’s involvement with Nov. 3 global event represents its commitment to coordinating with St. Kitts and Nevis government to advance these efforts

ST. KITTS – Nov. 12, 2021 – In recognition of the global One Health movement, Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine (RUSVM) recently brought together community leaders, researchers, faculty and students to highlight initiatives that use a One Health, multi-disciplinary approach to recognizing and preventing patterns of disease transmission that are a result of changing ecosystems around the world. …

“In 1901 a deadly smallpox epidemic tore through the Northeast, prompting the Boston and Cambridge boards of health to order the vaccination of all residents. But some refused to get the shot, claiming the vaccine order violated their personal liberties under the Constitution. …

… The Supreme Court rejected Jacobson’s argument and dealt the anti-vaccination movement a stinging loss. Writing for the majority, Justice John Marshall Harlan acknowledged the fundamental importance of personal freedom, but also recognized that “the rights of the individual in respect of his liberty may at times, under the pressure of great dangers, be subjected to such restraint, to be enforced by reasonable regulations, as the safety of the general public may demand.

This decision established what became known as the “reasonableness” test. The government had the authority to pass laws that restricted individual liberty, if those restrictions—including the punishment for violating them—were found by the Court to be a reasonable means for achieving a public good.”

 Relevant webinars and audio podcasts by subject matter experts. Each focuses on a specific area of interest within the topic of COVID-19.

You asked for CIDRAP and Osterholm Update: #COVID19 podcast merchandise, and now it’s available for purchase at the MN Alumni Market. It’s a memorable way to support our efforts. Thank you for your support!

“You must invest in preparedness, and especially in human resources and in promoting One Health. Let’s all collaborate—ministries, universities, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, and the private sector—to develop our One Health workforce, generate evidence-based information for policymakers, and maintain public health surge capacity.” Dr. Vipat Kuruchittham said at STOP Spillover’s Field Notes Blog.