To guide One Health capacity building efforts in the Republic of Guinea in the wake of the 2014–2016 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak, we sought to identify and assess the existing systems and structures for zoonotic disease detection and control. We partnered with the government ministries resp...onsible for human, animal, and environmental health to identify a list of zoonotic diseases – rabies, anthrax, brucellosis, viral hemorrhagic fevers, trypanosomiasis and highly pathogenic avian influenza – as the country's top priorities. We used each priority disease as a case study to identify existing processes for prevention, surveillance, diagnosis, laboratory confirmation, reporting and response across the three ministries. Results were used to produce disease-specific systems “maps” emphasizing linkages across the systems, as well as opportunities for improvement. We identified brucellosis as a particularly neglected condition. Past efforts to build avian influenza capabilities, which had degraded substantially in less than a decade, highlighted the challenge of sustainability. We observed a keen interest across sectors to reinvigorate national rabies control, and given the regional and global support for One Health approaches to rabies elimination, rabies could serve as an ideal disease to test incipient One Health coordination mechanisms and procedures. Overall, we identified five major categories of gaps and challenges: (1) Coordination; (2) Training; (3) Infrastructure; (4) Public Awareness; and (5) Research. We developed and prioritized recommendations to address the gaps, estimated the level of resource investment needed, and estimated a timeline for implementation. These prioritized recommendations can be used by the Government of Guinea to plan strategically for future One Health efforts, ideally under the auspices of the national One Health Platform. This work demonstrates an effective methodology for mapping systems and structures for zoonotic diseases, and the benefit of conducting a baseline review of systemic capabilities prior to embarking on capacity building efforts.
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At a time when the world is reeling from the deepest global disruption and health crisis of a lifetime, this year’s Living Planet
report provides unequivocal and alarming evidence that nature is unraveling and that our planet is flashing red warning signs of
vital natural systems failure. The ...Living Planet Report 2020 clearly outlines how humanity’s increasing destruction of nature is having
catastrophic impacts not only on wildlife populations but also on human health and all aspects of our lives.
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Urbanization, land use, global trade and industrialization have led to profound and negative impacts on nature, biodiversity and ecosystems across the world. The ongoing depletion of natural resources not only afects environmental conditions but also has an enormous impact on the well-being and secu...rity of societies.
This report provides an overview of the impacts of the natural environment on human health. It presents the ways nature and ecosystems can support and protect health and well-being, and describes how nature degradation and loss of biodiversity can threaten human health.
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You are currently intervening or wishing to intervene in a dense urban context to
respond to issues of food security and improve livelihood conditions? This handbook
is for you!
Following the evaluation of all of its sack-gardening projects, SOLIDARITÉS
INTERNATIONAL (SI) wished to formalise... its experience through this technical
handbook.
NGOs, including SI, are increasingly led to intervene in contexts of high density (whether
in camps or in slums): this handbook is thus set within this dynamic.
It provides the keys for assessing the relevance of a sack-gardening project, as well as
the tools for its implementation. Nonetheless, all methodologies and tools proposed
in this handbook shall be further contextualised in case of a replication of this project.
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Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B (2010) 365, 2959–2971; doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0143.
Agricultural ecosystems provide humans with food, forage, bioenergy and pharmaceuticals and are essential to human wellbeing. These systems rely on ecosystem services provided by natural ecosystems, including pollination, b...iological pest control, maintenance of soil structure and fertility, nutrient cycling and hydrological services. Preliminary assessments indicate that the value of these ecosystem services to agriculture is enormous and often underappreciated. Agroecosystems also produce a variety of ecosystem services, such as regulation of soil and water quality, carbon sequestration, support for biodiversity and cultural services. Depending on management practices, agriculture can also be the source of numerous disservices, including loss of wildlife habitat, nutrient runoff, sedimentation of waterways, greenhouse gas emissions, and pesticide poisoning of humans and non-target species. The tradeoffs that may occur between provisioning services and other ecosystem services and disservices should be evaluated in terms of spatial scale, temporal scale and reversibility. As more effective methods for valuing ecosystem services become available, the potential for ‘win–win’ scenarios increases. Under all scenarios, appropriate agricultural management practices are critical to realizing the benefits of ecosystem services and reducing disservices from agricultural activities.
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Why bold action against inequalities is needed to en AIDS, stop COVID-19 and prepare for future pandemics
The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health
in the United States: A Scientific Assessment
Climate change is a significant threat to the health of the American people. This scientific assessment examines how climate change is already affecting human health and the changes that may occur in the fu...ture.
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History has shown that governments tend to deprioritize environmental commitments during times of financial and public crises as they work to mitigate immediate needs—and the age of COVID-19 has been no different. Even though human interaction with wildlife is believed to be the cause of the pande...mic, the focus on COVID’s fallout has deprioritized the importance of reversing the damage humans have done to the planet.
COVID has had a multifaceted and detrimental effect on environmental conservation. Not only has funding been diverted to deal with the pandemic, conservation-oriented organizations are operating with minimal staff or have closed entirely. People whose daily work it is to advance environmental science and protect the land and water have become ill or have been forced to stay home because of travel restrictions. Plastic use is at an all-time high.
The good news is that there is an unprecedented opportunity for philanthropy to recharge the effort to protect the planet. This Giving Smarter Guide examines the state of environmental philanthropy, and provides an overview of potential strategic starting points for philanthropy and impact capital to play a role in saving the planet. In addition to offering recommendations specific to the COVID-19 response, the Center for Strategic Philanthropy also asks the questions that philanthropists should consider at the start of their journey into the field of conservation philanthropy.
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By almost any measure, human health is better now than at any time in history. Life expectancy has soared from 47 years in 1950–1955, to 69 years in 2005–2010, and death rates in children younger than 5 years of age have decreased substantially, from 214 per thousand live births in 1950–1955, ...to 59 in 2005–2010. But these gains in human health have come at a high price: the degradation of nature’s ecological systems on a scale never seen in human history. A growing body of evidence shows that the health of humanity is intrinsically linked to the health of the environment, but by its actions humanity now threatens to destabilise the Earth’s key life-support systems.
As a Commission, we conclude that the continuing degradation of natural systems threatens to reverse the health gains seen over the last century. In short, we have mortgaged the health of future generations to realise economic and development gains in the present.
Despite present limitations, the Sustainable Development Goals provide a great opportunity to integrate health and sustainability through the judicious selection of relevant indicators relevant to human wellbeing, the enabling infrastructure for development, and the supporting natural systems, together with the need for strong governance.
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A summary of health effects, resources, and adaptation examples from health departments funded by CDC’s Climate and Health Program
The Lancet Volume 397, ISSUE 10269, P129-170, January 09, 2021
In 2015, 5.9 million children under age five died (1). The major causes of child deaths globally are pneumonia, prematurity, intrapartum-related complications, neonatal sepsis, congenital anomalies, diarrhoea, injuries and malaria (2). Most of these diseases and conditions are at least partially cau...sed by the environment. It was estimated in 2012 that 26% of childhood deaths and 25% of the total disease burden in children under five could be prevented through the reduction of environmental risks such as air pollution, unsafe water, sanitation and inadequate hygiene or chemicals.
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En 2015, murieron 5,9 millones de niños menores de cinco años (1). Las principales causas de muerte en los niños a nivel mundial son la neumonía, la prematuridad, las complicaciones durante el parto, la sepsis neonatal, las anomalías congénitas, las enfermedades diarreicas, las lesiones ...y la malaria (2). La mayoría de estas enfermedades y condiciones son provocadas al menos en parte por el medio ambiente.
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Known avoidable environmental risks to health cause at least 12.6 million deaths every year, and account for about one quarter of the global burden of disease (2016 data) (1). Air pollution alone causes about 7 million
deaths a year, placing it among the top global risks to health (2). Global envir...onmental challenges are on the rise, including climate change, rapid urbanization and increased resistance to drugs.
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En 2015, 5,9 millions d'enfants de moins de cinq ans sont décédés (1). Les principales causes de mortalité infantile dans le monde sont la pneumonie, la prématurité, les complications durant l'accouchement, la septicémie néonatale, les anomalies congénitales, la diarrhée, les tra...umatismes accidentels et le paludisme (2). La plupart de ces maladies et de ces problèmes sont, du moins en partie, causés par l'environnement. On a estimé en 2012 que 26 % des décès infantiles et 25 % de la charge totale de morbidité des enfants de moins de cinq ans pourraient être évités par la réduction des risques environnement aux tels que la pollution de l'air, l'insalubrité de l'eau, les mauvaises conditions d'hygiène et d'assainissement ou les produits chimiques.
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Resources for Religious Leaders and Faith Communities
There is a broad consensus nowadays that the Earth is warming up as a result of greenhouse gas emissions caused by anthropogenic activities. It is also clear that current trends in the fields of energy, development and population growth will lead to continuous and ever more dramatic climate change. ...This is bound to affect the fundamental prerequisites for maintaining good health: clean air and water, sufficient food and adequate housing. The planet will warm up gradually, but the consequences of the extreme weather conditions such as frequent
storms, floods, droughts and heat-waves will have sudden onset and acute repercussions. It is widely accepted that climate change will have an impact on the spread of infectious diseases in Europe, which is likely to bring about new public health risks in the majority of cases. Transmission of infectious diseases depends on a number of factors, including climate and environmental elements. Foodborne and waterborne diseases, for instance, are associated with high temperatures. Disease-transmitting vectors (e.g. mosquitoes, sandflies and ticks) are highly sensitive to climate conditions, including temperature and humidity; their geographical distribution will widen as climate conditions change, potentially allowing them to spread into regions where they are not currently able to live.
The primary purpose of this manual on climate change and infectious diseases is to raise the awareness and the level of knowledge of health workers at national, regional and local levels in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on the health risks associated with climate change and infectious diseases. This manual was devel-
oped as part of the WHO Regional Office for Europe project, Protecting health from climate change: a seven–country initiative, implemented with financial support from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
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The World Climate and Security Report (WCSR) 2021 from the Expert Group of the International
Military Council on Climate and Security is a global assessment of the security dimensions of a changing
climate and effective means to address them. It is intended to inform timely climate and security po...licy
and action, and builds upon the analysis in the first WCSR, released in February 2020.
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The World Climate and Security Report (WCSR) 2021 from the Expert Group of the International Military Council on Climate and Security is a global assessment of the security dimensions of a changing climate and effective means to address them. It is intended to inform timely climate and security poli...cy and action, and builds upon the analysis in the first WCSR, released in February 2020.
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