An opportunity to ask any rabies or global health related questions

An opportunity to ask any rabies or global health related questions

by | Jul 16, 2019 | One Health

An opportunity to ask any rabies or global health related questions

On Thursday, 18th July 2019 Rabies Free Africa is partnering with MSD Animal Health and Mission Rabies at 9:00am EDT (6:00 am PST) to host the #RallyAgainstRabies Twitter chat.

Participants from all three organizations will be answering questions about global initiatives to eliminate human death from canine rabies. From Rabies Free Africa, there will be Dr Thumbi Mwangi representing Kenya (Rabies Free Kenya) and Dr. Guy Palmer representing the program as a whole.

Please spread the word with your colleagues and anyone else interested in global health issues. You can follow the discussion on Twitter using the hashtag #RallyAgainstRabies

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Why Some Havard Medical Students Are Starting Veterinary Rotations

Why Some Havard Medical Students Are Starting Veterinary Rotations

by | Jul 6, 2019 | My Write Ups, One Health

Why Some Havard Medical Students Are Starting Veterinary Rotations

“During medical school, students learn everything about the human body – but in Boston, a select group of Harvard medical students are learning about animals, too. It’s part of a collaborative program between Harvard Medical School and the Franklin Park Zoo called One Health, and it allows medical students to do a veterinary rotation during their final year of school.” Dana Jacobson reports from the CBS news

I capture a few statements from the interview as below:

  • Healthy people and animals depend on a healthy ecosystem, and a healthy ecosystem is richness of species/biodiversity. Healthy ecosystems also leads to healthy people
  • One of the student pediatrician stated, “I had no big expectations other than to just explore my curiosity and also have a chance to speak to veterinary doctors and learn from them. What was amazing was that from the very first day we could talk about very complex cases with the same language. I find myself thinking outside the box more often than I would have. My biggest impact was in my relationship to patients, especially as a pediatrician, and how I approach my patient. This gentle approach of gradually gaining trust with patients is something I gained from the veterinarians and animals I worked with.

 

  • Why are you better served by knowing more than just the human body? It is important to view the patient-doctor relationship within a larger framework. In medical school we learn how people living conditions, their income and occupations all impact their health. One Health is sort of an additional dimension to that. I think the more you can maintain that large framework in your approach to patient care, I think that serves everyone better.

  • Is One Health creating better doctors? Potentially yes, I think this will inform and will influence what they think about global health. When they are working in their own community and around the globe they will think differently about the health of their patients in the context of the health of the environment and animals.

View the full interview here: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/why-some-harvard-medical-students-are-starting-veterinary-rotations/

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Data sharing and how it can benefit your scientific career

Data sharing and how it can benefit your scientific career

by | May 15, 2019 | My Write Ups, One Health

Data sharing and how it can benefit your scientific career

An article by Gabriel Popkin appearing in Nature explores important benefits of sharing data and how this can grow your career. See below some highlights from the article: 

  • Opening up data can yield benefits: it can catalyse new collaborations, increase confidence in findings and generate goodwill among researchers.
  • Data sharing can benefit not just the recipients of data, but also the sharers. Papers that were based on openly shared data were published in journals of equal impact as often as were those based on non-shared data.
  • A major hindrance is concern about the legality of sharing data, especially when the research subjects are people, Tenopir has found. Researchers should also consider ethical issues before making data available on, for instance, rural villages or local environmental factors in low-income countries, which could compromise the privacy or well-being of residents.

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ABCs for Disease Control and Prevention (with pictures)

ABCs for Disease Control and Prevention (with pictures)

by | Apr 9, 2019 | My Write Ups, One Health

ABCs for Disease Control and Prevention (with pictures)

1. Regularly (after every 3 months) deworm your livestock, yourself and not forgetting your pets (dogs and cats). This will go a long way to control dangerous diseases like echinococcosis, coenurosis among others.

Deworming of a goat during a community outreach event organized by the Kenya Veterinarian Association

2. Vaccinate your livestock, your pets and your self against common vaccine-preventable diseases e.g. rabies. Picture this: you did not vaccinate your dog, it gets rabid, it goes ahead to bite your neighbour and a kid in the neighbourhood. The full course of PEP against rabies for your 2 neighbours will cost close to Kshs 30,000. Not forgetting the danger of losing your dog too! You could have prevented all these costs and losing your dog if you had just spent between Kshs 100-2000 in vaccinating your dog and protecting it for a whole year! 

 Vaccinating a dog during the Laikipia Rabies Vaccination campaign

 

3. Spray your livestock regularly to keep off vectors such as ticks and ensure to do away with any rodents such as rats which harbour very dangerous pathogens that can affect you or your animals.

 An attendant spraying of livestock in one of the livestock markets in western Kenya

 

4. Always wash your food thoroughly under running clean water, cook food well and serve food while hot!

Infographic courtesy of the ZooLinK project showing washing food and serving while hot

 

5. Always wash your hands thoroughly with running clean water and soap before eating, handling children and after handling animals or doing any work.

How to thoroughly wash your hands

 

6. Always wear personal protective equipment (PPE) when handling animals, working in the slaughterhouses, or doing designated works that require protective gear. PPE ensure the safety of you, the animal you are handling and whoever is around you.

Personal protective gear at the slaughterhouse

 

7. Place a footbath with a disinfectant at the entrance to your animal houses e.g. poultry or at gates of facilities dealing with infectious material to avoid the transfer of these bad germs to other farms.

 A footbath in one of the insitutions in Kenya to control and bio-contain pathogens

 

8. Always isolate dead or sick animals from the herd and immediately inform your animal health practitioner

 An isolation area for dead animals at the Mara Training Centre


9. Eat a balanced diet to boost your immunity to be able to defend you optimally. Remember to also give your calf enough colostrum (first milk from the cow) and proper nutrition because your calf/young animal is the future of your herd.

An Ankole calf suckling

 

10. If its a holiday and you are slaughtering an animal at home, ensure to always call your veterinarian to inspect the meat to avoid getting sick because of eating meat from an infected animal. In case you have symptoms such as stomach pains after eating any food please visit the nearest health centre immediately for a check-up.

 A liver fluke being collected from a bile duct as part of the surveillance activities by ZooLinK/ILRI team

 

11. Finally, always keep your environment clean and throw waste in designated areas. This will avoid our animals getting to eat plastic bags that make them sick (we also thank our Government of Kenya for banning the use of plastic bags).

 A huge plastic bag found in the rumen of a cow

 

Images in this post were taken while working for the following institutions or organisations: International Livestock Research Institute (ZooLinK project), Mara Training Centre, Kenya Veterinarian Association and Mpala Research Centre under the  Laikipia Rabies Vaccination campaign.

Are there any tips you’d like to also share on how to prevent and control diseases? Please drop your comment/ideas below.

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ANTHRAX: WHAT IS IT AND WHAT TO DO

ANTHRAX: WHAT IS IT AND WHAT TO DO

by | Apr 8, 2019 | My Write Ups, One Health, Zoonoses

ANTHRAX: WHAT IS IT AND WHAT TO DO

Anthrax is one among many zoonotic diseases (diseases that can affect humans and animals-domestic and wild). If you are a Kenyan and follow the news then you must have heard of several outbreaks (with the most recent one killing 10 buffaloes in Lake Nakuru).

How do animals or humans get anthrax?

Animals become infected when they drink contaminated water or eat contaminated grass from a spot near where a carcass with anthrax lies exposed (ever wondered why the outbreaks occur in the same areas?).
 
In humans, anthrax can be transmitted via the skin by touching the carcass, blood, wool, bones or skin of an animal that died of anthrax.

What signs to look for?

In animals: there is a sudden onset of death (always suspect anthrax when your animal(s) die suddenly). The animal also has a swelling under the jaw and sometimes under the neck, chest and abdomen. As the blood does not clot normally with anthrax, the blood in and around the nose, mouth, vulva and anus may be black in colour (Fig-1).

 Fig-1: A buffalo with dark-unclotting blood oozing from all body openings

The carcass of animals that have died from Anthrax may be bloated and the body does not become rigid/stiff (Fig-2).

A cow that died of anthrax with signs of bloat, and non-stiff/rigid limbs

In humans: Anthrax transmitted by skin causes vesicles in the skin that are slightly painful and black in colour. Without treatment, one out of five infected people die. Symptoms of Anthrax disease from eating contaminated products are violent, expressed by vomiting and bloody diarrhoea (25-75% of the patients die).

Is there something you can do to be safe?

  1. Any animal that dies suddenly is suspicious of being infected with anthrax: do not do an autopsy on this animal it can be very dangerous!
  2. Do not do an autopsy nor touch with bare hands or eat an animal that has died of unknown causes especially if it has blood oozing out of its natural openings.
  3. Destroy the carcass as rapidly as possible by incineration, burning, or burying. Bury the carcass 2 metres deep to prevent wild animals or anyone from accessing the carcass and secure the burial site with a fence.
  4. When burying and burning spray the carcass and the surrounding/contaminated ground/soil with 10% formaldehyde (approximately 30% formalin) mixed at a rate of 1–1.5 litre /m³. AVOID USING LIME or other calcium products.
  5. Beware of small skin injuries and take care of personal hygiene when disposing of a suspected dead animal. Wear gloves and protective gear.
  6. Ventilate and use proper working clothes in places where products of animal origin are handled, especially leathers and wool.
  7. Vaccinate cattle and goats annually in regions where anthrax is common

What should you do if you suspect anthrax?

  1. In animals – contact your veterinarian.
  2. In humans – contact your physician

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Why is the fight against Ebola and other endemic infectious diseases in Africa futile?

Why is the fight against Ebola and other endemic infectious diseases in Africa futile?

by | Mar 11, 2019 | Infectious Diseases, My Write Ups, One Health, Zoonoses

Why the fight against Ebola and other endemic infectious diseases in Africa is futile can be deciphered in the following statements from a recent article by Denice Grady appearing in the New York Times:

  1. “Fearful of being confined in isolation units, people have avoided testing and treatment.” Msg = build trust

  2. “They do not want outside interference in rituals around death and burial.” Msg = promote safer cultural practices and avoid the mindset of always wanting to eliminate cultural practices

  3. “Many wonder why outside aid has flooded in for Ebola, but not for malaria, diarrhea or other common, debilitating diseases that afflict many more people.” Msg = sometimes research should address what people want addressed first not what is scientifically trending

4.” Some have asked aid workers where they were when militias were carrying out massacres of civilians.” Msg = always be aware of underlying factors esp politics and political stability

  1. “They hear constant advice to wash their hands, but nothing about the lack of soap and water,” Msg = listen and fix what the community needs first hand (enables of compliance to control options)

  2. “They see their relatives sprayed with chlorine and wrapped in plastic bags, buried without ceremony. Then they see their possessions burned.” Msg = its not about eliminating cultural practices but its about making them safer

  3. “The lesson is clear: Guns and public health don’t mix,” Msg = self explanatory

What would be your take home messages? Share in the comments below