Announcement

Now Stopping Spillover in Cambodia

This week, Cambodia joined Bangladesh, Liberia, Uganda, and Viet Nam – becoming the fifth country where STOP Spillover is working to understand and address the risks posed by known zoonotic viruses with the potential to spill over from animals and cause outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics in humans. STOP Spillover is working in countries at high risk for emergence and re-emergence of known zoonotic viruses with pandemic potential, and is working directly at suspected spillover locations – places where zoonotic viruses are likely to make the jump from animals to humans.

Announcement

Introducing STOP Spillover’s Advisory Board

This month, STOP Spillover launched its external advisory board. The purpose of this group is to help STOP Spillover gain diverse perspectives and insights as we work to prevent future spillovers and pandemics. This group of highly qualified individuals from across sectors and around the globe will provide knowledge, critical thinking, and analysis that inform STOP Spillover’s work.

Presentation

Introducing the One Health Information Assessment Tool

In December, JSI’s Romain Tohouri, Daniel Otzoy-Garcia, and Katie Thompson presented at the Global Digital Health Forum about the ongoing development of the One Health Information Assessment Tool (OHIAT), designed to support the assessment of the people, processes, policies, and information systems involved in a country’s One Health system. This tool will be used to identify potential gaps in the optimal performance of human, animal, and environmental health information systems, and within the project, to analyze each country’s systems.

Addressing Health Risks at Rocket Speed

In last month’s TechByte, we introduced the Digital Health Compendium, a series of case studies on how digital health has been used in many countries – including in many of the countries where STOP Spillover works. This month we wanted to specifically highlight a case study from Uganda, Rocket Health, which could have important applications for our work to stop zoonotic spillover, amplification and spread.

Rocket Health is a 24/7 telemedicine service that provides a telehealth hotline, and also brings vaccines, diagnostic testing, and other services directly to Ugandans’ doorsteps. This convenient private sector service could be applied to help reduce risk of zoonotic disease spillover, amplification and spread by supplying surveillance and vaccination services and supplies to multiple local service providers and institutions, and providing up-to-date, evidence-based recommendations on risk reduction technologies to hotline callers and/or journalists.

Meet the University of Nebraska Medical Center

The University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine (UNMC) work at the clinical–public health interface in health emergency and disaster risk management. Home to the National Quarantine Unit, Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, and the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center with interagency and academic partners, its colleges, health system, and Global Center for Health Security work together to tackle problems important to improving patient and community outcomes.

As part of the STOP Spillover global consortium, UNMC is providing technical advice and support to partner countries as they develop and exercise their outbreak risk management strategies.

"Seeing the project country teams form and engage local, regional, and international partners to prioritize interests in One Health and emerging diseases is an exciting step forward in STOP Spillover,” said Dr. David Brett-Major, a medical doctor and Professor of Epidemiology in the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and UNMC’s lead for STOP Spillover.