One Health Surveillance

The multiple forms of Human African Trypanosomiasis (human T.b. gambiense and zoonotic T.b. rhodesiense, as well as the several strains which cause disease in animals) that occur in Uganda make coordinating the scientific and developmental, human and animal, social and economic systems influencing their control particularly complex. Uganda is one of the only countries in Africa that has experienced largescale, debilitating outbreaks of HAT, and co-ordinated major control programmes.

Anthrax is endemic and enzootic in Georgia with cases being registered since 1881 with over 2000 foci identified. Since 2005, 439 laboratory confirmed and 211 probable human cases and 190 laboratory confirmed animal cases have been registered. A case-control study performed in 2012 by the National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC), National Food Agency (NFA) and the Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (FELTP) found the main transition routes for human cases are slaughtering diseased animals and handling raw meat without protective equipment.

Zoonotic diseases compose a large proportion of the disease burden faced by African countries (e.g. Ebola). A One Health approach to disease control has been embraced across the continent, yet public health and veterinary surveillance systems in most countries remained vertically isolated under separate Ministries. Data exchange, if it occurs, is ad hoc and informal.

Accurate and timely reporting of animal rabies test results and potential human exposures is necessary to guide case management and define rabies epidemiology. Accordingly, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (NDHHS) collaborated with Kansas State University Rabies Laboratory (KSU-RL) in 2011 to establish electronic laboratory reporting (ELR) of animal rabies test results to Nebraska's Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS). If a potential human rabies exposure is verified, NDHHS authorizes state-paid rabies testing through a contractual agreement with KSU-RL.

In 2014, a dengue outbreak affected northern Mexico and travel-associated dengue cases increased in southern Arizona. While Arizona has not detected a local dengue case, local transmission occurred in Nogales, Sonora, sister city of Nogales, Arizona across the border. The detection of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a dengue and chikungunya vector, and the frequent human movement across the border with Sonora heightens Arizona’s risk for introducing emerging mosquito-borne diseases. Limited data exists on the extent or seasonality of Aedes mosquitoes in Arizona border counties.

From December 2014 to February 2015, Maricopa County, Arizona was the host site for several high profile events, including Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl. Public health officials were allocated with implementing numerous enhanced surveillance activities to quickly identify health risks to the public. These included laboratory-based surveillance, mortality surveillance, and syndromic surveillance at select hospitals, urgent cares, hotels, and on-site at the events.

Vector borne diseases like Japanese Encephalitis (JE) result from the convergence of multiple factors, including, but not limited to, human, animal, environmental, and economic and social determinants. Thus, to combat these problems, it is essential to have a systematic understanding of drivers and determinants based on a surveillance system that systematically gathers and analyzes data emanating from across multiple disciplines.

Pakistan being a subtropical region is highly susceptible to water-borne, air-borne and vector-borne infectious diseases (IDs). Each year, millions of its people are exposed to, and infected with, deadly pathogens including hepatitis, tuberculosis, malaria, and now-a-days dengue fever (DF). Monitoring and response management to natural or man-made IDs is non-existent in the country due to lack of robust infrastructure for health surveillance. DF outbreaks in 2005-2011 alone resulted in more than 50,000 infections and about 1500 people lost their lives.