Implementing One Health initiative in West Africa on zoonotic diseases and related public health threats
8 November 2016, Dakar –
The Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), jointly with other
international and regional partners, promotes a holistic and
multidisciplinary approach to advocate for the much needed
One Health initiative in the West African region.
For FAO, the One Health
approach is a prerequisite for ensuring public and animal health
security, building agro-ecological resilience, protecting biodiversity,
and ensuring efficient use of natural resources
and the safety of food supply chains.
In the African context,
the Ebola virus disease caused tens of thousands of deaths and
negatively affected socio-economic activities of communities and
countries for months from 2014 to 2016. The implementation
of One Health approach is crucial now, as further evidenced by the
increasing threat posed by re-emergence of the zoonotic highly
pathogenic avian influenza due to H5N1 virus that is rapidly spreading
in West and Central Africa with a potential to cause significant
negative socio-economic impact and a major threat to public health.
“FAO strongly believes
that the fight against animal diseases, including zoonotic emerging
diseases, require tackling them at their animal source“, said the FAO
Representative a.i. in Senegal, Patrick David,
at the opening of the One Health Technical and Ministerial meetings on
zoonotic diseases and related public health threats (8-11 November 2016,
Dakar).
“I believe this meeting
will enable us to be a milestone in the formulation of an agenda for the
effective and sustainable implementation of the One Health approach”,
he added.
Discussion for an effective agenda
“Despite the significant
progress made by the subregion, the health situation in ECOWAS member
States is still characterized by the burden of communicable and
non-communicable diseases, as well as the emerging
and/or re-emerging diseases in the context of inadequate health
systems”, remarked Xavier Crespin,
WAHO
General Manager, adding further details on the significant activities
WAHO is implementing
today through its Strategic Plan 2016-2020, including the effective
establishment of the Regional Center for Prevention and Disease Control.
According to the World Health Organization
(WHO)
Representative in Senegal, Deo Nshimirimana, countries should
imperatively have the necessary capacities to monitor, detect, assess,
report and declare cases, in order to organize the response.
On his part, Karim Tounkara,
OIE
Regional Representative for Africa, stated that the subregion is
characterized by unprecedented movements
of people and goods, causing rapid movements of pathogens. “These
people and goods have transported pathogens faster than the average
incubation period of most epizootic diseases, inducing the emergence and
re-emergence of many zoonotic diseases, against which
a new approach is needed.”
On the first day of the
meeting, participants and authorities all agreed on the need of a new
approach and for the efforts to be enlarged. The meeting is expected to
submit the recommendations on the One Health
agenda for West Africa to Ministers’ approbation during the high-level
ministerial session to take place on 11 November 2016.
About the high-level ministerial meeting
The high-level ministerial session, convened by WHO, FAO, OIE, WAHO RAHC, the
United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), the US Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) and the World Bank, aims at fostering adoption and
implementation of the One Health initiative in West Africa in order to
further strengthen prevention, detection and response to emerging
infectious disease threats, including zoonoses
and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).
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Contacts:
FAO Communication
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