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U.S. National Institute of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH/NIAID) Physician Director, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci Addresses One Health...

 

The One Health Initiative Autonomous pro bono Team has had many positive comments on our recent paper, Vaccines for zoonoses: a one Health paradigm” – Pages 227-229 published in SciTech Europa Quarterly Issue 26 - March 2018.

 

For example, on March 7, 2018, we heard from Dr. Tony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who writes,

 

“Thank you for sharing the article about [Dr.] Tom Monath’s work.  It is really well done, and captures the important contributions of our long-time friend and collaborator. 

 

…we have long embraced a one-health paradigm at NIAID, especially in the realm of emerging and re-emerging diseases, most of which are zoonoses and must be studied in the context of the ecosystems humans share with microbes, non-human hosts, vectors, reservoirs and other actors.  Many of the research efforts about which I speak and write almost daily fall under the one health rubric, in that our studies are multi-disciplinary and have benefits not only for humans but for other species, agriculture, and other aspects of society and the environment.   

 

The Hendra virus vaccine for horses is a key example of a one health approach to the control of human disease. We supported development and evaluation of a vaccine for horses with the potential for breaking the chain of HeV transmission from bats to horses to humans, thereby protecting horse, human, and environmental health.

 

Certainly much of what we do in influenza is “one health” in its focus --  such as the work of  Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS).  And influenza vaccine research informs not only human vaccines for seasonal and pandemic flu, but also vaccines for animals.

 

Another important area is our Ebola work, which is focused at preventing virus transmission into the human and great ape populations, notably via vaccine development focused at protection of humans and endangered wildlife, but also by studies to understand ebolavirus spillover dynamics; by gorilla carcass surveillance (to establish the cause of great-ape mortality); and via outreach to  local populations (to educate the local populations and thereby prevention of Ebola transmission into the human populations).

 

Our work on MERS-CoV [Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus] is focused on understanding the transmission of MERS-CoV into the human population and effective countermeasure design, including the development of vaccines and vaccination strategies for humans and dromedary camels.   Solving the MERS-CoV spike structure has  provided a potential vaccine antigen that could be applied to humans and animals (camels).  Interestingly, this antigen also appears to work for other veterinary CoV like Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV).  

 

Studies of West Nile virus has resulted in candidate human vaccines, but also licensed equine vaccines that have been of great utility….”

 

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Note: On March 8, 2018, Dr. Fauci testified at a hearing of the U.S. Congress House Energy and Commerce Committee titled, “Examining U.S. Public Health Preparedness for and Response Efforts to Seasonal Influenza” http://bit.ly/2G6sAuo in Washington, DC (USA).