Network for Evaluation of One Health

Category: Front Page News

  • Upcoming Events 19 Feb

    The following events have been added to the NEOH website recently:

    An ANTIDotE for tickborne diseases

    Workshop on the development and implementation of anti-tick vaccines in Europe

    Date(s):  3rd June 2016

    Location: Hotel am Griebnitzsee, Potsdam (Close to Berlin)

    Find out More: http://neoh.onehealthglobal.net/our-events/an-antidote-for-tickborne-diseases/ 

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    One Health Inter Regional European Conference

    Abstract deadline:  15th of June 2016

    Date(s):  22nd– 24th of September, 2016

    Location: Bucharest, Romania

    Find out More: http://neoh.onehealthglobal.net/our-events/one-health-inter-regional-european-conference/

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  • Upcoming Events 18 Feb

    The following event has been added to the NEOH website recently:

    IUFoST 2016 – World Congress of Food Science and Technology

     

    Abstract deadline:  18th March 2016

    Date(s):  21st-25th August 2016

    Location: Dublin, Ireland

     

    Find out More: http://neoh.onehealthglobal.net/our-events/iufost-2016/ 

  • One Health: competing perspectives in an emerging field.

    A new paper has been published by P Kingsley and EM Taylor:

    One Health: competing perspectives in an emerging field.

    Parasitology. 2016 Jan 28:1-8.

    Abstract

    Over the last decade, One Health has attracted considerable attention from researchers and policymakers. The concept argues that the fields of human, animal and environmental health ought to be more closely integrated. Amid a flurry of conferences, projects and publications, there has been substantial debate over what exactly One Health is and should be. This review summarizes the main trends in this emerging discussion, highlighting the fault lines between different perspectives on One Health. Some have shown that One Health’s call to synthesize knowledge from different disciplines can lead to better interventions. Others, however, argue that One Health’s challenge to existing practice must go further, and set out a vision that foregrounds the social and economic drivers of disease. Meanwhile, recent examples of One Health in practice highlight the potential but also the challenges of institutionalizing cooperation. We also discuss the promise and pitfalls of using complexity theory to tackle multifaceted problems, and consider how the One Health concept has been brought to bear on other issues, such as emerging new technologies. Ultimately, One Health is an important and worthwhile goal, and requires a debate that clarifies both the competing uses and the political nature of the project.

    Link to paper: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=10142562&fileId=S0031182015001845

  • Pregnant mums hold key to disease control

    Pregnant women should be at the centre of new efforts to control one of Africa’s deadliest diseases, experts say.

    A form of sleeping sickness – which threatens around 70 million people – can spread to a child if its mother experiences stress or famine during her pregnancy.
    Scientists warn that the threat of famine could trigger an epidemic in Southern Sudan.
    They are urging that efforts to boost the nutrition and welfare of pregnant women should be urgently improved.

    Human transmission

    It has long been assumed that the most common strain of the disease - called chronic Gambian sleeping sickness - is spread solely through tsetse flies. But Gambian sleeping sickness is rarely detected in tsetse flies and now the scientists at the University of Edinburgh propose an alternative human to human mode of transmission. In humans, the disease can lie dormant for many years without causing symptoms. These ‘silent carriers’ have a natural tolerance to the disease, which women would ordinarily pass on to their baby if they become pregnant. But scientists at the University of Edinburgh suggest that in times of famine, changes occur in a pregnant women’s genetic profile that mean their tolerance is not passed on to her children - but the dormant infection is. The findings will help researchers develop new strategies to prevent and control the spread of the condition.

    Killer disease

    It is estimated that 70 million people in Africa are at risk of contracting Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) or sleeping sickness. The majority of these - 81 per cent - are at risk from the Gambian form (gHAT). This common strain a chronic disease that may take many years before becoming fatal. The WHO estimate it affects around 20,000 people every year.

    "Our priority should now be to concentrate on screening women of child-bearing age in high risk locations to ensure they receive adequate nutrition during periods of drought and famine.” Professor Sue Welburn, Professor of Medical and Veterinary Molecular Epidemiology at the University

    Diagnostic developments

    Professor Ian Maudlin, who co-led the research at the University of Edinburgh’s Division of Infection and Pathway Medicine, said that currently, patients cannot be treated for sleeping sickness unless key markers of the disease - called trypanosomes - are found in their blood.
    He said: "Current tests are simply not sensitive enough to detect disease in silent carriers. International efforts should now focus on creating new highly sensitive diagnostic tests that are fast, affordable, and accurate, rather than on tsetse fly control.”
    This study was supported by the UK Department for International Development, the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme, the Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium, NERC, and by a European Science Foundation Senior Investigators award. This is a copy of a Press Release from the University of Edinburgh - http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2016/sleeping-sickness-100216