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

The re-emergence of zoonoses have their roots in many causes [21] . The global economy has enabled the rapid spread of people, animals, plants, and agricultural products across the world. This mobility has contributed to more frequent outbreaks of zoonotic diseases and infections of uninformed populations. Improved coordination among key ministries (health, livestock, fisheries, wildlife, environment, disaster response, and partners) guided by the One Health approach is necessary to match responses to disease ecology [22, 23] . This is done by conducting in-depth joint outbreak investigations and response activities by establishing a One Health coordination unit. This unit should bridge the animal and human health sectors by deploying an epidemiologist from each ministry in order to maintain collaboration at the animal and human health interface with the goal of better prevention and control of zoonosis. Furthermore, an ecologist should be added to the unit to ensure that environmental risks are adequately addressed in emerging disease control. Such collaboration has been applied successfully in other countries such as Kenya [24] and India [25] by applying a One Health-based approach for controlling diseases.