KISUMU, Kenya, Feb 10 — Experts are advocating for a One Health approach to combat the outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in the country.
Speaking during a webinar series on Capacitating One Health in Eastern and Southern Africa on Saturday, the experts who included Omu Anzala, a Professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology at the University of Nairobi, emphasised the need for a recalibrated approach to bolster RFV containment.
Prof. Anzala noted pathogens causing the fever hide in the environment thus the need for a concerted effort to root out the disease.
“These infectious pathogens, some of them have countermeasures, like vaccines, and yet we are still having continuous problems,” he said.
He called for actors in healthcare to have a critical look at the role the environment and implications outbreaks in one area could have in others.
Prof. Anzala noted that there is a need to ask questions on where the pathogens reside when they are not causing havoc before they strike again.
“The truth of the viruses is very clear, they are actually a spillover from the environment, and if they are, then the whole notion of one health plus should be advanced,” he said.
Upscaling response
Prof Anzala called for the scalling up of response efforts to address socialcultural dynamics fueling the epidemiology.
“We have been talking about one health plus, because it is not just about animal and human health, it involves climate as well, nutrition, brain or mental health,” he said.
Dr Bernard Bett, an epidemiologist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), noted the effects of the fever on livestock are huge.
“It causes severe socio-economic impacts, for example, the 2006-07 outbreak in the country was associated with 2 million USD in the economy through ban on livestock exports and livestock mobility and mortality,” he said.
Dr Bett said also causes some human infections, whose exact number has not been quantified, noting that most of the cases do not make it to the hospital.
Mosquitoes are the primary hosts of RVF amplifying its impact on domestic animals including sheep, camels, goats and cattle, Bett noted.
