Building a ‘ONE HEALTH’ National Capacity: A feasible model to combat health threats in ETHIOPIA

Wubshet Mamo*, DVM, MSc, PhD, Clinical Associate Professor of Global Health, University of Washington (UW), USA; Senior Consultant, American Society for Microbiology (ASM).

Infectious diseases present a major threat to human health, with over one billion human cases globally each year and are increasingly recognized as a threat to other species including, but not limited to plants, terrestrial and marine animals.

Humans and animals are often susceptible to the same disease causing pathogens. There are about 1,415 microbes that are known to infect humans, of which about 61% come from animals (PBMID 11516376). Approximately 60% of all human infectious diseases recognized so far, and about 75% of emerging infectious diseases that have affected people over the past three decades, have originated from animals (WHO). In the past 30 years, more than 30 new infectious diseases have emerged (WHO). The contact between human & wild animal habitats increases, introducing the risk of exposure to new viruses, bacteria and other disease-causing pathogens (biological agents that cause disease or illness).Like many African countries, ETHIOPIA is exposed to number of important health challenges, including population growth. The rapid human population growth and environmental changes have resulted in increased numbers of people living in close contact with wild and domestic animals.

The fact is that ETHIOPIA is an agrarian (agricultural) society; over 80% of the population is located in rural areas with intense contacts with animals. This increased contact together with changes in land use, including livestock grazing and crop production, have altered the inherent ecological balance between pathogens and their human and animal hosts. There are number of diseases that could be shared between animals and humans making the population at increased risk of zoonoses (infections that are naturally transmissible from animals to humans). As the global environment changes rapidly, humans share many environmental risks with animals, and humans need to find ways to coexist. It requires a wide reaching strategy for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment with a ‘ONE HEALTH’ model.

‘ONE HEALTH’ model/approach is the integration of human medicine, animal medicine and environmental science to attain optimal health for humans, animals and our environment. ‘ONE HEALTH’ is about what we can learn from those shared risks, and it's about protecting the environment in order to optimize the health of the animals as well as humans. The ‘ONE HEALTH’ concept has become more important in recent years, because many factors have been changed the interactions among humans, animals and the environment. These changes have caused the emergence and re-emergence of pathogens, and particularly zoonotic agents and these changes occur at unpredictable rates in animal and human populations.

ETHIOPIA, therefore as an agrarian society need to increase adoption and implementation of a ‘ONE HEALTH’ approach to integrate and manage concerns and values about human, animal and environmental health including zoonotic diseases. It is necessary to develop

national ‘ONE HEALTH’ strategies. On national level, a ‘ONE HEALTH’ central network of public health and veterinary colleges, universities developing academic capacity with a broad range of topics under the ‘ONE HEALTH’ paradigm and providing a foundation in the principles of diseases in the context of sociological systems, national health and food safety. The greatest acceptance of ‘ONE HEALTH’ will have significant impacts on control of infectious diseases. Moreover, it breaks down the traditional silos between animal health and human health. Human health has often taken an "us" versus "them" approach to animals – viewing them as carriers of diseases or allergens or as sources of bites and injuries and taken steps to separate people from animals. Public health will never be complete unless animal and environmental health is integrated with human health. . By its very nature, the ‘ONE HEALTH’ approach is transdisciplinary, since it is predicated on agricultural scientists, anthropologists, economists, educators, engineers, entomologists, epidemiologists, hydrologists, microbiologists, nutritionists, physicians, public health professionals, sociologists, and veterinarians working collaboratively to improve and promote both human and animal health.

ONE HEALTH’ model is part of the Global Health security Agenda (GHSA) action package, an effort by nations, international organizations, and civil society to accelerate progress toward a world safe and secure from infectious disease threats to promote global health security as an international priority. On a national level, countries as diverse as Sweden and Kenya have developed national ‘ONE HEALTH’ strategies. In paving the way, the ‘ONE HEALTH’ Central and Eastern Africa (OHCEA) network of public health and veterinary universities has been developing networks and trying to establish academic capacity in a number of African countries including Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, DRC, and Ethiopia.

In Ethiopia, a national ‘ONE HEALTH’ steering committee has been formed involving concerned ministries and authorities (EPHI, MOLF, Wild life authority and Ministry of environment and more) to facilitate the development of a national ‘ONE HEALTH’ strategy.

It is necessary to promote ‘ONE HEALTH’ models in Ethiopia to policies, educational sectors, practices and behaviors that provides a model for considering ways to maximize and monitor the health of human populations living in close proximity with domestic animals in a sensitive ecosystem, that could minimize the risk of emergence and spread of diseases of public health significances in the country.

Implementing ‘ONE HEALTH’ in ETHIOPIA, a joint cross-species disease surveillance and control efforts in public health, better understanding of cross-species disease transmission through comparative medicine and environmental research, the availability of quality analytical and clinical laboratory diagnostic facilities, the development of laboratory networks linked with central reference laboratories associated with active and passive environmental and medical surveillance are essential.

Successful public health interventions require the cooperation of human health, veterinary health and environmental health communities and by promoting this collaboration optimal health outcomes for both people and animals can be achieved.

*E-mail: wubshetmam@yahoo.com; Cell phone: +251 911 821 624