One Health News

One Health Zoonoses consequences Considered in “Disease Scenarios Africa” website

A new website (www.diseasescenarios.org) exploring disease scenarios for four zoonotic diseases in five African countries has been launched by the Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium (www.driversofdisease.org). The Disease Scenarios Africa site presents the findings of workshops which posed 'What if ... ' questions to experts from a wide range of disciplines. The scenarios explored included a +3C rise in temperature, major agricultural expansion and an investment in One Health. The site is expected to help policymakers, researchers and communities identify a range of futures, as well as improve understanding and start discussion about desirable ones. It is hoped it will also spur action aimed at creating more resilient societies.

The case studies considered are Lassa fever in Sierra Leone, Rift Valley fever in Kenya, henipavirus infection in Ghana, and trypanosomiasis in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Victor Galaz, assistant professor at the Stockholm Resilience Centre who led the work, writes in a Lancet Global Health (http://globalhealth.thelancet.com/2015/03/31/preparing-zoonotic-surprise) blog: “Sophisticated macro-models will, and should, continue to play an important role in the global health community’s attempts to explore future zoonotic disease risks. However, understanding Anthropocene disease risks will require more than large datasets, statistical ingenuity and massive computing power. It will also require abilities to combine multiple knowledge systems, multidisciplinary innovation, and well-developed communication skills.”

The scenarios project will continue with villager workshops, the results of which will be added to the website during a Phase II of the project.

Provided to the One Health Initiative website on April 14, 2015 by:

Naomi Marks

Project Communications Manager

Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium | Twitter @DDDAC_org

Social, Economic and Environmental Drivers of Zoonoses in Tanzania (SEEDZ) | Twitter @SEEDZ_TZ  

ESRC STEPS Centre, Institute of Development Studies

Tel: +44 (0) 1273 915606

Two One Health Programs work to integrate human health into “One Health” (USA)

*Peter M. Rabinowitz, MD, MPH and **Eleanor M. Green, DVM, DACVIM, DABVP

Provided to the One Health Initiative website www.onehealthinitiative.com on April 8, 2015

While One Health stresses the interdisciplinary collaboration and cooperation between human, animal, and environmental health professionals, as well as other disciplines, some have reported that human health has been underrepresented in current One Health efforts at the University level.  In response to this need, two U.S. One Health Programs, one based at Texas A&M University and the other at the University of Washington, are taking innovative steps to bring more human health care professionals into the realm of One Health.

At Texas A&M University, a One Health initiative was formed in 2013 following discussions between the deans of the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences and the College of Medicine. Soon afterwards, “One Health” was designated a university Grand Challenge, signifying an important societal impact area built upon notable university strengths.

An essential component of the One Health Grand Challenge is active participation by multiple colleges across the university and today all colleges at Texas A&M are contributing. While educational, research, and outreach programs in One Health are expanding, one prime example of the partnership between human and veterinary health care professionals with an inclusive approach is the summer practicum experience in Ometepe, Nicaragua. 

A multidisciplinary team of students and faculty include medical students, veterinary medical students, public health students, and agriculture from Texas A&M University http://onehealth.tamu.edu/about/partners and other universities, the first being the University of California Davis (USA) http://globalhealth.ucdavis.edu/initiatives/one_health.html. The students train and work together to collect data to determine the major health challenges in people, animals, and the environment and to provide sustainable solutions for the community, doing so with full understanding of local culture, assets, and limitations. They provide clinical care to both people and animals in a rural setting.

At the clinic sites, there is true cross coverage and cross training among the students, with the medical students working with the local veterinarian to take care of the animal patients and the veterinary medical students working with the physician in the care of the human patients. Through this model there is a continuous rotation of students working in all areas of human, animal, and public health.

Based upon surveys, human and animal patient examinations, and diagnostic testing, areas of needed focus are determined. Nicaragua is certain to benefit from this One Health approach, which is identifying tangible connections between human, animal, and environmental health. Each year new One Health care teams will visit Nicaragua to build upon the findings and recommendations of previous teams. In addition, as part of recent curriculum revisions in College of Medicine, Texas A&M medical students will now be able to choose a One Health emphasis as an elective component of their training, resulting in a certificate in One Health.  The certificate in One Health is also available to all professional students across Texas A&M University, including veterinary medical students.  The students have also formed a Student One Health Association.

At the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, the recently formed UW Center for One Health Research (COHR) http://deohs.washington.edu/cohr/ is one of the few One Health programs nationally that is based in a public health/medical school complex rather than primarily at a veterinary medical school. COHR is serving as a means for medical and public health students, including global health and environmental health majors, to get involved with One Health efforts, including programs at the Washington State College of Veterinary Medicine.

University of Washington medical students recently teamed up with their counterparts in the WSU College of Veterinary medicine to create student posters for the Zoobiquity http://zoobiquity.com/ 4 conference held in Seattle in November 2014, collaborating on subjects such as Ebola infections across species. UW medical students and public health students are actively working with the Center for One Health Research on a number of projects, including investigation of E coli O157 infections in humans and animals, sharing of microbiome between humans and domestic animals, antibiotic resistance in different species, and the effect of natural gas extraction activities on the health of humans and animals.  COHR has also proposed starting a training track for animal and human health professionals (Occupational Health at the Human Health Interface: OHHAI) to prepare them for careers involved in research and practice regarding  the unique occupational health needs of animal workers including workers in animal agriculture, veterinary workers, and workers with wildlife contact. COHR has applied to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for funding for this program and is hoping to initiate training activities later this year.

*Dr. Peter M. Rabinowitz http://deohs.washington.edu/faculty/rabinowitz_peter, a physician One Health leader, is director of the UW Center for One Health research in Seattle, Washington (USA).  Dr. Rabinowitz is a longstanding collaborator with the One Health Initiative team and concomitantly a member of the One Health Initiative team’s Honorary Advisory Board http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/advBoard.php.  Notably, Dr. Rabinowitz and Dr. Lisa A. Conti [DVM, MPH], an internationally recognized veterinarian One Health leader and member of the One Health Initiative team, collaborated jointly to co-write/edit and publish the landmark One Health textbook Human-Animal Medicine – Clinical Approaches to Zoonoses, Toxicants and other Shared Health Risks http://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/product.jsp?isbn=9781416068372 - 1st Edition (2010).

**Dr. Eleanor M. Green http://vetmed.tamu.edu/dean, a veterinarian One Health leader, is Carl B. King Dean of Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas (USA) and a longstanding One Health Supporter http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/supporters.php.  Dr. Green’s progressive interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary One Health leadership at Texas A & M has been previously documented on the OHI website: http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/news.php?query=Texas+A+%26+M.

An important One Health publication…of the National Academies Press (USA):

“Emerging Viral Diseases:

The One Health Connection: Workshop Summary (2015)”

See: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/18975/emerging-viral-diseases-the-one-health-connection-workshop-summary

NOTE: Reports from the National Academies Press are free to read or download for personal use at our website, http://www.nap.edu. To download, please choose the “Download Free PDF” option. You will see a screen asking you to log in to your MyNAP account. MyNAP is a free login service that lets you download free PDFs on the NAP website, and offers an interface where you can maintain a list of NAP books that you have downloaded or purchased, books that you have added for later, bookmarks that you have made in OpenBooks, and see books recommended for you. To learn more about MyNAP, click here (http://www.nap.edu/content/using-mynap).

If you are new to NAP, click “I don’t have an account” below the red Log In button. You’ll have the option to create a MyNAP account, or you can skip that step and log in as a Guest. If you create a MyNAP account, we will ask you to provide your email address and agree to our terms of use, but we won’t send any extra emails unless you also select the checkbox that reads “Yes, send me e-mail when similar titles are published.”

On the download page, you can choose to download the full report or only specific chapters. Click the button to download, and then start reading!

If you have any questions about the download process or MyNAP, please contact our customer service department (http://www.nap.edu/content/contact-customer-service).

Instructions for free downloading and reading of this important “Emerging Viral Diseases: The One Health Connection: Workshop Summary (2015)” [and others] from the National Academies Press were graciously provided to the One Health Initiative website by:

Barbara Murphy

Assistant Manager, Sales & Marketing

National Academies Press

500 5th Street, NW | Washington, DC  20001

Infection Prevention and Control Canada (IPAC) Endorses One Health Approach

March 27, 2015 – “Infection Prevention and Control Canada (IPAC Canada) is pleased to endorse One Health Initiative for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment. …”

Please read complete endorsement letter to One Health Initiative team website from:

Bruce Gamage RN BScN CIC, President, IPAC

http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/publications/One%20Health%20Initiative%20-%20Endorsement%20letter%20-%20March%2027%2015.pdf

Provided April 6, 2015 by:

Gerry Hansen (Ms.), Executive Director

Infection Prevention and Control Canada (IPAC Canada)

P.O. Box 46125 RPO Westdale

Winnipeg MB R3R 3S3

Tel: 1-204-897-5990; TF 1-866-999-7111

Fax:1-204-895-9595

www.ipac-canada.org

Note: “IPAC CANADA (Infection Prevention and Control Canada) is a multidisciplinary, professional organization for those engaged in the prevention and control of infections. IPAC Canada was incorporated under the Canadian Corporation Act in 1976 and is a registered non-profit organization. IPAC Canada has over 1600 members.” 

IPAC-Canada www.ipac-canada.org is included as a Reciprocal Link http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/reciprocal_link/RECIPROCAL%20LINK%20March%2026,%202015%20.pdf (scroll down) on the One Health Initiative website: see http://www.ipac-canada.org/links_aro.php; and http://www.ipac-canada.org/links_orgs.php. 

Important Reminder…National Foundation of Infectious Diseases

18^th Annual Conference on Vaccine Research – April 13-15, 2015 – Bethesda, Maryland (USA)

Details: http://www.cvent.com/events/18th-annual-conference-on-vaccine-research/event-summary-3c5831a03ce8408f8c236f79ad11332f.aspx?refid=oc

One Health: Integrating the Veterinarian Scientist into the Biomedical Research Enterprise              

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Bethesda, Maryland (USA)

April 7-8, 2015

One Health is an integrative effort of multiple disciplines working together to attain optimal health for people, animals, and the environment. This Conference will bring together veterinarians, clinicians, and basic researchers with the aim of providing information and advice on how basic and applied biomedical research—utilizing the concept of One Health—can advance the National Institutes of Health (NIH) human health and disease mission. Participants will discuss case studies in which multidisciplinary teams combine investigations using both animal and human subjects to study various conditions, including infectious disease, cancer, and neurological disease. Training programs that bring together investigators from diverse disciplines, including veterinary science, also play a critical role in advancing the One Health concept. Participants will discuss examples of training programs that use the One Health strategy and will identify best practices for training veterinarian scientists to be part of interdisciplinary biomedical research teams. Based on these various case studies and roundtable discussions, participants and attendees will provide input on how the NIH might further its mission by incorporating the One Health concept into research and training programs. The Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP), within the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives in the Office of the NIH Director, is pleased to sponsor this conference. ORIP funds animal-based resources and research projects and plays a central role at the NIH in training veterinarian scientists (see http://dpcpsi.nih.gov/orip/index). Therefore, ORIP seeks advice regarding future directions for its programs, including alignment with recommendations from the 2014 NIH Physician-Scientist Workforce Working Group Report (http://report.nih.gov/workforce/psw/index.aspx) and initiatives being planned by veterinary schools to partner with NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Centers and other resources.

For details see http://www.scgcorp.com/ORIPOneHealth2015

Agenda: see http://www.scgcorp.com/ORIPOneHealth2015/Agenda

Contacts
For questions concerning program content, contact:

Manuel Moro, DVM, MPH, PhD
Program Official
Division of Comparative Medicine (DCM)
Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP)
Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI)
Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health (OD, NIH)
6701 Democracy Boulevard, Room 941, MSC 4874
Bethesda, MD 20892-4874
Telephone: (301) 435-0960
Email: manuel.moro@nih.gov

For questions concerning meeting logistics, contact:

John Hare, MS, CMP, CGMP
The Scientific Consulting Group, Inc.
656 Quince Orchard Road, Suite 210
Gaithersburg, MD 20878
Telephone: (301) 670-4990
Email: jhare@scgcorp.com

New open-access “One Health Journal” announced…

Please see http://www.journals.elsevier.com/one-health

One Health

Official Journal of the One Health FoundationThe mission of One Health is to provide a platform for rapid communication of high quality scientific knowledge on inter- and intra-species pathogen transmission, bringing together leading experts in virology, pathology, immunology, bacteriology, parasitology, veterinary sciences, food safety, mathematical modelling, epidemiology, public health research and emergency preparedness.Submissions to the following categories are welcome:

Virology

Bacteriology

Parasitology

Modelling

Discovery

Ecosystem Health

Public Health

The journal is part of a larger, community-wide initiative which includes the One Health Platform and the One Health congress series.

• The mission of One Health is to provide a platform for rapid communication of high quality scientific knowledge on inter- and intra-species pathogen transmission, bringing together leading experts in virology...

  View full aims and scope

  Editors-in-Chief: John Mackenzie, Albert Osterhaus
  View full editorial board

Romanian Association establishes “One Health Initiative – New Medical Concept”

THE ROMANIAN ACADEMY

OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

BUCHAREST,. Stefan cel Mare Avenue, no. 19-21, District 2, Tel/: Fax +4 021/ 311 53 (82) (80)

March 22, 2015

From:

The National Forum of Comparative Medicine

 Professor emeritus Dr. Nicolae Manolescu

 Bucharest, Rumania

To: One Health Initiative Autonomous pro bono Team (USA): Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP ▪ Bruce Kaplan, DVM ▪ Thomas P. Monath, MD ▪ Jack Woodall, PhD ▪ Lisa A. Conti, DVM, MPH

Dear colleagues,

We are extremely happy to announce to you the establishment of the Romanian Association “One Health Initiative – New Medical Concept”, headquartered in Bucharest, Romania, at the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine.

Our association is open for all members, regardless of their legal status (individuals, associations and organizations).

The major goal of our association is to promote the pillars of the One Health concept, by reuniting, under a common roof, all of the professions that comprise the above mentioned concept.

The lucrative [productive] structures of our association are the following:

-          The Department of Management and Bio-Economy and Legislation

-          The Department of Comparative Medicine

-          The Department of Human Medicine

-          The Department of Veterinary Medicine

-          The Department of Environment Medicine

-          The Department of Food and Feed Safety

-          The Department of Zoonoses

-          The Department of Pharmaceutical and Biological Products

-          The Department of Scientific Research

-          The Department of Education

-          The Department of Non-conventional Therapies

-          The Department of Comparative Oncology

-          The Department of Radiations in Medicine

-          The Department of Phyto-Pathology

-          The Department of Accreditation

All of these departments are to be managed by specialists in their field of expertise.

Our association is eagerly awaiting your feedback. We are also open and extremely interested in potential collaboration agreements, participation in scientific projects and any other form of collaboration that will bring clear progress for the One Health initiative.

Finally, we assure you of our full support [for One Health].

21.03.2015

Bucharest, Romania

President,

University Professor emeritus h.c Dr. h.c. Nicolae Manolescu

Member of the National Academy of Medicine of France

Member of the Romanian Academy

Member of the Romanian Academy of Medical Sciences

The contact data for the Association:

Secretariat e-mail: secretary.ohnmc@gmail.com

Secretariat:

Dr. Supeanu Alexandru (+40 721088001),

Dr. Mihai Iuliana (+40 749022555).

Note: An earlier 2010 brochure was posted on the One Health Initiative website’s Publications page http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/publications.php?query=Excellent+One+Health+Brochure.  The U.S. National Park Service is a longstanding organizational One Health supporter http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/supporters.php.   

Repeat: Important One Health approach for human protection via animal vaccinations/immunizations…

Originally Posted One Health Initiative NEWS page October 9, 2013 - http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/news.php?query=+A+potential+large+scale+%93One+Health+in+Action%94+...+another+dynamic+case+for+implementing+One+Health%21+  

*Vaccines against diseases transmitted from animals to humans: A one health paradigm

“This review focuses on the immunization of animals as a means of preventing human diseases (zoonoses). …”

In simple terms, the idea is to develop vaccines that protect domestic animals and wildlife thereby establishing effective barriers against human infections.  Developing animal vaccines are less expensive and are less strictly regulated than are those for humans.  Hopefully a common sense One Health approach can go forward.

http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/publications/Thomas%20P.%20Monath,%20MD%20Sept%202013%20One%20Health%20Vaccine%20Article.pdf