Experts: One Health approach to help combat zoonotic diseases in Africa
Experts: One Health approach to help combat zoonotic diseases in Africa
Tags: Africa, Ecology, PolicyMilliam Murigi, People Daily, 2025.
If African countries are to successfully combat zoonotic diseases, human health, animal health, and environmental health must be treated as one interconnected system. This was revealed in Accra, Ghana, during the second global congress on new and emerging genetic biocontrol technologies.
Speaking during the meeting, Misheck Mulumba, the congress president said that, there is no way Africa is going to win this fight if different departments keep seeing rise of zoonotic diseases as a problem for one department and not their mandate. “It is important that different practitioners in all the three departments to work together to combat these infections. These three departments should stop pointing fingers but should instead work together to solve the problems the continent has,” Mulumba said noting Africa must embrace One Health approach. One Health approach is a collaborative, multisectoral, and trans disciplinary strategy that recognizes the interconnection between human health, animal health, and the environment.
It emphasises that diseases affecting humans often originate from animals and are influenced by environmental factors, making it essential for experts from different fields such as medicine, veterinary science, environmental science, and public health to work together to prevent and control health threats. With 75 per cent of emerging and reemerging diseases originating from animals, Mulumba notes, it’s clear that tackling these infections requires a collaborative approach. Apart from that, the continent needs to invest in rapid detection, response, and control mechanisms to curb disease outbreaks before they escalate into global health emergencies.
