International: The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has held its first workshop on the “ONE HEALTH” (OH) Project at the AU headquarters. The two day workshop is a coordinated effort between the AfricaCDC and Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security. The workshop aims to forge a consortium towards the preparation of a feasibility study to support the enhanced operationalization of OH in Africa, honing in on the East Africa region as a first step. The workshop comprises presentations to introduce the different themes and group work to deliberate and produce inputs towards the preparation of the feasibility plan.
In a statement read on his behalf by Dr Raji Tajudeen, Director of Africa CDC Dr. John Nkengasong assured participants that the workshop will help towards the development of a feasibility study on the integrated operationalization of OH in Africa. “Africa has been suffering from environmental infectious diseases such as rabies, anthrax and fever due to non-existence of proper strategies to tackle the problem, and that is why Africa CDC is leading the way because our core responsibility is to strengthen, protect and control infectious disease”, he noted.
He further stressed that, “Africa cannot achieve this alone, unless we work hand-in-hand with major stakeholders, like the environmental agencies, to see how we can develop strategies to tackle this problem”.
Mr. Afifah Rahman-Shepherd who represented Chatham House said the workshop will help focus more on the implementation of the strategies to tackle the problem as far as the OH issues are concerned.
During the two day workshop, there will be presentations and panel discussions to look at the overview of One Health Operationalization (OHO) and strategic framework by country perspective and the view of international organisations. The stakeholders of this workshop include officials and representatives from government departments (e.g. ministries of health, ministries of agriculture, and environment departments), international agencies (e.g. the World Health Organization), corporations (e.g. Zoetis), civil society organizations, and a number of other institutions with a role in OH.