Developing regional networks for integrated health surveillance

Avian flu, Ebola, Chikungunya or Covid-19... These emerging diseases are coming from animals.
Agence Française de Développement is promoting a new approach to health policies, to better acknowledge the interdependence among human and animal health as well as the health of our ecosystems. Together, they constitute “One Health,” for which AFD is financing several projects.

In South-East Asia, the ECOMORE project (ECOnomic development, ECOsystem modification and emerging infectious diseases Risk Evaluation) is implemented by Institut Pasteur, in collaboration with Institut Pasteur du Cambodge, Institut Pasteur du Laos, the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Vietnam, the National Health Laboratory in Myanmar, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in the Philippines, and the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD). It aims at strengthening partners’ capacities to monitor, diagnose and respond to epidemics in the region. It also analyses the linkages between population health, epidemic outbreaks and environmental and climate changes currently take place in the region to better inform public health decision making. https://www.afd.fr/en/actualites/grand-angle/southeast-asia-faced-rise-emerging-diseases

In the Indian Ocean, the Sega One health network has been set up under the leadership of the Indian Ocean Commission to strengthen regional cooperation to better anticipate and respond to epidemic outbreaks, whether of animal or human origin, circulating in the region. Bringing together the IOC member states (La Réunion, Union of the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles) within a common approach for integrated disease surveillance, this network has been working towards bridging the gap between human and animal health. It encourages cooperation between veterinary and health actors and across member states to better prepare and respond to outbreaks within the region. https://www.afd.fr/en/actualites/indian-ocean-exemplary-regional-cooperation-mitigate-risk-epidemic

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