SEAOHUN 2022 International Conference: Catalyzing One Health Citizens of the Future

The SEAOHUN International Conference 2022, a live, knowledge-sharing event for current and aspiring One Health practitioners, educators and researchers, is set for September 5-7 in Bangkok, Thailand. With the theme "Catalyzing One Health Citizens of the Future," the conference seeks to bring together students, academics, One Health practitioners, and advocates from diverse backgrounds to share their experience, research findings, and perspectives to discuss One Health education and complex health threat issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and antimicrobial resistance.

New Research on COVID-19 Transmission

This week, STOP Spillover's Jonathon Gass, Jonathan Runstadler and others published a new article in One Health which proposes the COVID-19 Human-Animal Interactions Survey (CHAIS), a standardized way to evaluate risk factors associated with interspecies transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (and similar pathogens) between infected humans and the animals they closely interact with, including household pets and captive wildlife.

A New Framework for Biosafety and Biosecurity

STOP Spillover wildlife field team lead Tristan Burgess, a wildlife veterinarian, epidemiologist, and vice president for science and education at Center for Wildlife Studies, traveled to Madison, Wisconsin this month for the 70th annual conference of the Wildlife Disease Association.

At the conference, Tristan presented a strategic risk management framework for biosafety and biosecurity developed by members of STOP Spillover. The plan was designed to address a gap in the literature on the theoretical approach to managing biosafety and biosecurity in field work on emerging viral zoonoses. This framework will help inform STOP Spillover’s approach to biosafety and biosecurity.

STOP Spillover's Patrick Webb Appointed to EAT-Lancet 2.0 Commission on Food, Planet, Health

This month, the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health announced that Patrick Webb, co-lead of STOP Spillover's Food, Water, Air, Climate, Livelihoods and Economics, and Policy and Security (FWA) Resource Hub and Professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science, and Policy at Tufts University, will be joining the commission. The EAT-Lancet Commission 2.0 brings together world-leading scientists from across the globe to answer one key question: Can we nourish a future population of 10 billion people with a healthy diet within planetary boundaries?

Meet Internews

Internews is an international media support nonprofit organization that believes everyone deserves trustworthy news and information to make informed decisions about their lives and hold power to account. The global organization trains journalists and digital rights activists, tackles disinformation, and offers business expertise to help media outlets become financially sustainable.

Internews’ flagship environmental project, the Earth Journalism Network (EJN), now a global network of more than 15,000 members, works to improve the quantity and quality of environmental reporting around the world. In partnership with STOP Spillover, Internews’ Earth Journalism Network’s efforts focus on raising awareness about zoonotic diseases, diffusing knowledge, and developing media capacity to report on these issues, especially among journalists from vulnerable and marginalized communities.

“Public awareness of the risks of zoonotic diseases is limited, and in many parts of the world the pandemic response has been characterized by a lack of data and rampant misinformation. In order to act effectively, governments, policymakers and communities need reliable, evidence-based and robust information to make informed decisions and push for change,” said James Fahn, executive director of Internews' Earth Journalism Network..

“Internews will provide local journalists in target countries with crucial information and guide them to report more effectively on how to reduce amplification and spread of zoonotic pathogens,” said Stella Paul, project officer for environment and health.

As part of STOP Spillover, Internews’ Earth Journalism Network is offering story grants and 1-1 mentorship to selected journalists from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Vietnam who want to report on viral zoonotic diseases and efforts to prevent their spillover from animals to humans. Journalists may apply in English, Vietnamese, Khmer or French by August 15, 2022. 

Learn about eHealth Africa

eHealth Africa is using technology to facilitate data-driven decisions that improve healthcare. Established in 2009, the organization began as a research team from the University of California, Santa Cruz but has transformed into an international organization with offices in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, the United States, and Germany.

Some of eHealth Africa’s current projects in STOP Spillover countries include:

• Creating the Sierra Leone Ebola Database, a consolidated database to store Ebola outbreak-related data that equips researchers with the information needed to better understand risk factors for potential future disease outbreaks.

• Helping to develop Sierra Leone’s Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response system (eIDSR) to improve the flow of information within health systems.
  

Applying these types of data technologies to our work could help inform decisions to reduce spillover risk and enhance our ability to reduce future zoonotic spillover risk and stop the next pandemic before it starts.

You can find eHealth Africa’s Liberia and Sierra Leone reports at the links.