Africa CDC has endorsed a one-health approach to address shared climate related health threats at the human-animal-environment interface for a safer and healthier Africa.
Speaking during a side event of the Africa climate summit, the Acting Deputy Director General of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (AfircaCDC) Dr Ahmed Ouma Ogwell said that climate change is directly linked to health, and that its agenda should be a priority.
“As Africa CDC, we endorse the One Health approach, and we encourage you to take this up to address the climate change-related issues of health, agriculture, and development,” Dr Ogwell said adding that,
“Diseases that comes about as a result of disruption in the environment, for example, drought and flood leads to increase of malaria and cholera incidences, in the disruptions in the animal systems leads to emerging diseases Zoonotic diseases such as Ebola, Marburg diseases, etc. that were not really within the human population before but because we are disrupting the environment, then they come into the population.”
According to Africa CDC, beyond the increasingly frequent extreme weather, Africans are also facing increased risks to their health through more disease outbreaks.
“Increasing globalization, urban density, ease of travel, animal movement, environmental changes and habitat overlap between humans and animals, all provide opportunities for the emergence and spread of diseases that adversely impact both human and animal health, prosperity, and food security.”
Africa CDC says that One Health, a collaborative, multisectoral and transdisciplinary approach can be used to attain optimal health outcomes for people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.
Dr Kutane Waltaji Terfa, Health and Environment Officer, WHO Ethiopia said that there is a need to integrate climate change mitigation in all health project planning as there is vulnerability and slow adaptation to the climate change shocks in the health sector due to weak investment in capacity building and low penetration of advanced technology in most of Africa health systems.
“People are talking about malaria increase but not addressing environment variability, which is important in malaria transmission, as we respond to cholera outbreaks, we need also need to focus on disease surveillance,” Dr Terfa said.
According to Dr Madina Doumbia, lecturer and researcher at the department of mathematics-physics-chemistry at University Peleforo Gon Coulibaly, Korhogo Cote d’Ivoire, urbanization poses a key challenge for environmental issues in Africa.
She said that development of anthropic activities, increased agricultural productivity, deforestation, air pollution, flooding problems, over consumption of energy, destruction of biodiversity and climate change increases challenges such as malnutrition, malaria, meningitis, infectious diseases, heat related conditions, injuries, non-communicable diseases and mental health problems.
“Africa comprises of 15 percent of global population but bears 25 percent of global diseases burden and only 2 percent of research output,” she said adding that “there is a need to better communicate benefits of using research output as climate information in disease control is still needed.”
While, Dr Yenew Kebede, Medical microbiologist and head of laboratory systems Africa CDC, said that Africa CDC prioritizes one health approach to tackle zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, food safety and climate change.
He added that Africa CDC aims to promote a collaborative, multisectoral approach to public health that recognizes the interconnectedness of human, animal and environment interface.
Dr Yenew observed that Africa is now more vulnerable to multiple effects of climate change leading to shifts in epidemiology and disease patterns never witnessed before for example, vector borne diseases now spreading towards highland areas, frequent cyclones result in wide spared cholera and severe droughts limiting agricultural productivity therefore leading to malnutrition.
“These challenges can be addressed by strengthening capacity for detection, prevention and response to disease outbreaks at the interface of human-animal-environment.”
He said that deforestations and other land use changes, illegal and poorly regulated wildlife trade, antimicrobial resistance, intensified agriculture and livestock production and climate change are some of the factors responsible for the increasing emergence of Zoonotic diseases.
“A total of 178,672 cases of Cholera have been detected by AU MS this year supursing annual totals from 2019-2022 this is because of tropical cyclones witnessed in Malawi and Mozambique and severe droughts witnessed in Ethiopia and Somalia,” Yenew said adding that “over 50 percent of cholera outbreaks were witnessed in Ethiopia, Somalia, Malawi, Mozambique and DRC.”
He said that one health approach will help with information sharing across sectors, coordinated response and early detection of epidemics.
“A One Health approach can help us shift from focusing always on crisis response to placing a greater emphasis on prevention, one health issues are complex and involve multiple disciplines and areas of expertise, Africa CDC will continue to champion and lead the implementation of one health approach in Africa.”
