Ebola in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo: One Health approach to infectious disease control

Sikakulya, Franck katembo; Mulisya, Olivier; Munyambalu, Dalton Kambale; Bunduki, Gabriel Kambale

Maintenance and extension of the classic control modalities, such as epidemiological surveillance, clinical medicine, and clinical virology are essential. In addition, new tools such as mathematical modeling, remote sensing, and ecologically based approaches are also important [30] . Mathematical models can project how infectious diseases progress to show the likely outcome of an epidemic and help inform public health interventions. Models use some basic assumptions and mathematics to find parameters for various infectious diseases and use those parameters to calculate the effects of possible interventions, such as mass vaccination programs. Research that applies an environmental approach to emerging viral diseases is particularly complex. Remote sensing data enable scientists to study the earth's biotic and abiotic components. The causes underlying the rise of disease are at the macro (socio-cultural) and micro (cellular and molecular) levels, but they are indeed acting over individuals, populations, and communities. There are several lines of evidence on the relationship between natural ecosystems' intervention and re/emergence of diseases produced by bacteria, parasites and viruses. Specifically, in order to understand viral emergence it is important to understand the sylvatic cycle of viruses, the transition to human populations, the relationship between vectors, pathogens and reservoirs in wildlife ecosystems, the change in the distribution of vectors and reservoirs after natural habitat fragmentation, and how these conditions are generating potential new roles and ecological niches for species. Wild ecosystems historically disturbed by agricultural and industrial activities with changes in biotic and abiotic factors (water bodies distribution, soil profiles, plant coverage, breeding microclimate, vertebrate and invertebrate populations, etc.), constitute new selective pressures for pathogens and therefore new opportunities for adaptation. It allows vectors/reservoirs to exploit the new resources, favouring viral contact with potentially new host populations (e.g. humans) [31] . From all these aspects, the integrated approach of One Health shows its usefulness in controlling re-emerging infectious diseases.