International symposium features One Health initiative in Southeast Asia

Farmer Ma Thi Puong feeds her pigs on her farm near the northern town of Mieu Vac, Vietnam (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

One Health is an interdisciplinary approach to combating emerging infectious diseases by addressing the complex interactions of human health, animal health and the environment.

The One Health approach encourages the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, regionally and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment.

Seventy-five per cent of all new, emerging or re-emerging diseases affecting humans at the beginning of the 21st century originated in animals.These zoonotic diseases present serious public health, economic and development challenges.

The subject of One Health took centre stage during the August 2013 International Symposium of Health Sciences (i-SIHAT 2013) held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In a keynote presentation at the start of the symposium, Hung-Nguyen Viet – a researcher at the Center for Public Health and Ecosystem Research (CENPHER) at the Hanoi School of Public Health who is on a joint appointment at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) – discussed a regional One Health initiative in Southeast Asia and how this integrated approach is working to develop the capacity of universities to respond to the threat of emerging infectious diseases.

View the presentation, One Health – an interdisciplinary approach in combating emerging diseases

 

Vietnamese journal publishes special issue on risk assessment in health research in Vietnam

The Vietnamese Journal of Preventive Medicine has published a special edition on risk assessment for health research in Vietnam. The June 2013 special edition is a compilation of over 10 original research papers on the application of risk analysis to the management of animal, human and environmental health in Vietnam. The subject of training and capacity development in health risk assessment in Vietnam is also featured.

Risk analysis is a scientific, risk-based approach to assessing the health effects and economic impacts of various hazards (for example, disease-causing microorganisms in food or chemical pollutants in water) in order to develop appropriate interventions to mitigate the health risks posed by the hazards, thus ensuring that people, animals and the environment are safe.

Risk analysis comprises three components: risk assessment, risk management and risk communication. In the developed world, risk assessment is widely applied and used as a tool for risk management, thanks to the availability and accessibility of large databases of diseases.

However, many developing countries – including Vietnam – do not have the research data and risk analysis expertise needed to be able to adequately inform policymaking on risk-based approaches to health management.

The research papers featured in the special issue provide insights into the current status of research on risk analysis in Vietnam, specifically, risk assessment of the health impacts of Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes in the pork value chain in Hanoi, arsenic contamination in drinking water in Hanam Province, dioxin contamination in food in Da Nang and pesticide residues in farms in Thai Binh.

The work is a result of the collaborative efforts of the Vietnamese Journal of Preventive Medicine and the Center for Public Health and Ecosystem Research (CENPHER) at the Hanoi School of Public Health (HSPH).

Among the co-authors of the research papers are Delia Grace and Lucy Lapar, scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and Hung Nguyen-Viet who leads research at CENPHER-HSPH and is a joint appointee of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and ILRI.

The papers are in Vietnamese with abstracts available in English. Listed below are the titles of the papers.

• Risk assessment and health research in Vietnam (editorial)
• Risk assessment of Salmonella in pork in Hanoi, Vietnam
• Food-borne hazards in a transforming pork value chain in Hanoi: Basis for future risk assessments
• Health risk due to exposure to chlorpyrifos for farmers in Thai Binh: Probabilistic risk assessment
• Risk assessment of arsenic contamination in tube-well drinking water in Hanam Province
• Environmental health risk assessment of dioxin in foods in Da Nang dioxin hot spot
• Prevalence of Salmonella contamination in pig and pork at farms and slaughterhouses in the northern provinces of Vietnam
• Air pollution as a health issue in Hanoi, Vietnam: An opportunity for intensified research to inform public policy
• Environmental health risk communication: Concept, principles and challenges
• Training and research programs in health risk assessment in Vietnam
• Task force of risk assessment for food safety in Vietnam: Linking science to policy to increase food safety and livelihood generation of the poor farmer
• Research projects on health risk assessment implemented by the Hanoi School of Public Health

The special edition also includes news on risk assessment training in Vietnam and reviews of two books on risk assessment.

For more information on this special edition, please contact Hung Nguyen-Viet (hung.nguyen @ unibas.ch).

 

Vietnam hosts pioneer training course in One Health and EcoHealth

A vendor weighs live chicken for sale in Hung Yen province, Vietnam (photo credit: ILRI/Nguyen Ngoc Huyen).

The first ever short course on One Health and EcoHealth in Vietnam – hosted by the Center for Public Health and Ecosystem Research (CENPHER) at the Hanoi School of Public Health (HSPH) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) – took place on 27-30 May 2013 in Hanoi.

While Vietnam is a part of the EcoHealth network in the Southeast Asia region, no formal EcoHealth training program existed in the country before the launch of this course.

EcoHealth is an emerging, multi-disciplinary field of study that examines how ecosystem changes affect human health so as to prevent new diseases from emerging.

The participants were an international, multi-disciplinary and multi-sector group drawn from various countries across the globe, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore, Thailand, the United States of America and Vietnam.

The course, which was run by regionally based trainers, highlighted the conceptual framework of EcoHealth and One Health and its potential usefulness in advancing the agenda of public health. Specifically, activities generated from the workshop provided a chance to demonstrate how risk analysis can be used as a tool in developing strategies to prevent and control infectious diseases.

Through the introduction of concepts and didactic methods, application of case studies and participation in fieldwork, the course participants learned about the theory and major concepts of EcoHealth, and honed the skills necessary to apply the principles of One Health and EcoHealth in their respective fields of expertise.

Following the successful inception of One Health and EcoHealth training in Vietnam, CENPHER now plans to incorporate an EcoHealth course into a comprehensive and innovative public health training program. To do this, CENPHER will collaborate with various EcoHealth initiatives currently working in Southeast Asia, namely,

• the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)- funded project,  EcoHealth approaches to the better management of zoonotic emerging infectious diseases in the Southeast Asia region;
• the Ecohealth Field-Building Leadership Initiative in Southeast Asia; and
• two EcoHealth Resource Centres in Chiang Mai University, Thailand and Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia.

Beyond the immediate successes of expanding the scope of EcoHealth concepts and applications, the community at HSPH and CENPHER hopes that the output of this workshop will mark the start of continued growth, sustained partnerships and lasting opportunities for collaborative learning.