11th Safe Pork Conference: Experiences from our team member

Sep 24, 2015 | Blog, Latest news, Urban Zoo Project

The 11^TH Safe pork conference was held from 7^th to 10^th September 2015 in Porto, Portugal. The Zoonotic and Emerging Infectious Disease group (under the umbrella of the urban zoo project) was represented by Dr. Maurice Karani and Dr. Pablo Alarcon.

The conference focused on the epidemiology and control of foodborne pathogens and antimicrobial resistance in pigs and pork along all production chains. Additionally, international exchange of ideas, research and policy themes related to the management of zoonosis and food safety in the pig and pork sector, with an integrated approach from “farm to fork” in relation to the “One Health” concept was explored

The highlight of the conference was the oral presentation by Maurice Karani, a veterinarian and a research assistant with the urban zoo project and an MSc student at the Royal veterinary college titled, ‘Assessing and understanding food safety risk practices in Nairobi pork food system: a value chain approach’. The presentation was awarded the best oral presentation on the student category.

Dr. Maurice giving a presentation

Dr. Maurice giving a presentation

Fruits of a superb presentation

URBAN ZOO PROJECT: The 99 Household Study

Sep 14, 2015 | Blog, Latest news, Urban Zoo Project, Zoonotic Diseases

The 99 Households Study is part of the Urban Zoo Project which is a joint project between scientists from Kenya and the UK. We are interested in how diseases can be transmitted between animals and people living in close contact in a city environment. The 99 Household study aims to collect in-depth information from 99 families from 33 different neighbourhoods stratified by socio-economic status across the whole of Nairobi. We are testing humans, animals and the home environment for bacteria that can be shared and spread between them.

Using a tablet to scan the barcodes on samples before submission to the labs

Drs. Karani and Muinde collecting samples from a guinea fowl

Prof. E. Fevre using boot socks to collect environmental samples

KEMRI Lab staff explaining the lab procedures to a reporter from the Voice of America News Programme

Faecal sample collection from a goat

Boot socks samples ready for the lab

A motorbike rider loading the cool box full of samples for delivery to the labs

Training of Food Vendors in Informal Settlements

Sep 14, 2015 | Blog, Latest news, Urban Zoo Project

Group discussions during the Food vendors training

Training session –food preparation and handling techniques

Group Photo of the trainers and food vendors—Viwandani

Vendors in Viwandani recently participated in a training session that not only enhanced their knowledge of food safety and hygiene, but also offered a highly engaging discussion. On 31st July, a total of 25 vendors recruited from Viwandani were trained by two nurses with expertise in food safety from KEMRI. Muungano wa Wanavijiji members and staff mobilized the participants while ILRI and APHRC facilitated the training The activity was in response to vendors’ own requests for capacity-building and offered a crucial opportunity to support livelihoods and bolster community health across informal settlements.

These vendors provided a wide array of foods, including cooked items (e.g., githeri, green grams, or roasted corn), fresh produce, meat and eggs, or snacks like mandazi. Some are mobile vendors, while others sell their items from kiosks and restaurants known as ‘hotels.’ Even with all their diversity, vendors were consistently engrossed in the training session and stayed throughout their lunch-hour, which would other-wise be a lucrative time for many traders.

The session began with a group activity, where vendors brain-stormed thoughtfully about how to define ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods. Other key topics included good hand-washing practices and how to cut, wash, and prepare vegetables or meat properly. All participants were encouraged to provide their own examples and to ask ques-tions; handouts were provided to share with other vendors in their settlements. Future sessions are envisioned with vendors in Korogocho and Mathare, which can be filmed to disseminate infor-mation amongst additional vendors. Finally, radio programs are planned to raise awareness and educate consumers on food safety in informal settlements.

Nevertheless, the training has fostered widespread benefits in Nairobi’s informal settlements, in addition to meeting vendors’ own de-mand for improved skills. Educating vendors and consumers in food safety will bolster awareness across their settlements, thereby helping to prevent food-borne illnesses and the associated socio-economic losses. Recognizing vendors as vital providers of food and as community leaders will build their confidence and self-awareness, which is otherwise difficult in the atomized, competitive environment of informal settle-ments. Above all, the trainings are supporting enhanced access to healthy, affordable meals with multiple benefits for buyers and sellers alike.

Training of Food Vendors is one of the outputs for the Urban Zoo Project—we aim to give back to society by training such lay groups on some of the good practices of handling foods. Three more trainings are planned in Mathare, Viwandani and Korogocho (some of the main study sites under the Urban Zoo Project). We are very grateful to the UK-Medical Research Council which has agreed to fund these future events which will take place before the end of the year.

WHO promotes water, sanitation to battle neglected tropical diseases

Sep 8, 2015 | Blog, ILRI series, Latest news

WHO promotes water, sanitation to battle neglected tropical diseases

Water, sanitation and hygiene are part of a new World Health Organisation strategy to fight neglected tropical diseases which afflict more than 1.5 billion people, the WHO said on Thursday.

Those suffering from the 17 diseases, such as intestinal worms, river blindness, leprosy and sleeping sickness include many of the poorest people in the world.

“If we put in place universal access to safe water and sanitation and hygiene then the neglected tropical diseases in most cases will completely disappear or be put under control,” Maria Neira, head of public health at WHO, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Including water and sanitation in local and national programmes would reduce infections, improve treatment, and reduce the discrimination and stigma that people disfigured by diseases often face, the WHO said.

“Those terrible diseases require hygiene and sanitation and we hope that this contribution will add to our argument that access to safe water and sanitation is one of the most important determinants of our health,” Neira said at the launch of the initiative at a global water conference in Stockholm.

Neglected tropical diseases thrive where people live in extreme poverty with poor sanitation and little access to healthcare – usually in remote rural areas, urban slums or conflict zones.

“Water and sanitation require resources that exceed what WHO can generate for neglected tropical diseases, so we want to make sure that interventions both in public health and water and sanitation reach the poorest as a matter of priority,” Dirk Engels, director of the Department of Neglected Tropical Diseases at the WHO, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The new strategy was announced just weeks before a new set of development objectives – known as the Sustainable Development Goals – is due to be adopted at a U.N. summit in September.

The new goals include eradicating extreme poverty by 2030 and providing universal access to water and sanitation.

More than 660 million people around the world live without access to clean water, and 2.4 billion do not have access to proper sanitation, according to UNICEF and the WHO.

WaterAid, an international charity which has been working with communities affected by neglected tropical diseases, gave the example of leprosy, saying that nearly 5,000 new cases are reported each year in Ethiopia.

“Once you have the severe form of a disease like leprosy, you pretty much have it for life and the people affected often suffer from exclusion,” Yael Velleman, WaterAid senior policy analyst on sanitation and health, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The stigma associated with those diseases mean that people who have them may not be allowed to use the same washrooms as family members and may be unable to access water, because if they have a disability it is harder for them to carry water, Velleman said.

“It’s not just about controlling a disease, it’s making sure that the poorest of the poor and the most marginalised have access to these basic services,” she said.

The new strategy was launched as a partnership between the WHO, WaterAid and other charities.

This article can also be found on the ILRI Livetock matters online paper and credited to Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, corruption and climate change.

Sustainable Development Goals Must Tackle Neglected Tropical Diseases

Sep 8, 2015 | Blog, ILRI series, Latest news

Sustainable Development Goals Must Tackle Neglected Tropical Diseases

With the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) about to expire, the global health community is looking back on major accomplishments in reducing poverty and improving health over the last 15 years. Perhaps one of the greatest surprises has been the success of international efforts to tackle neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 1.8 billion people, including more than 800 million children, require annual treatment for NTDs. These parasitic and bacterial infections affect people for years or decades, mostly striking the world’s poorest, most marginalized communities.

Adults and children living with chronic NTDs in Africa, Asia, and the Americas endure horrific disfigurement, blindness, and often extreme and debilitating pain. Children with NTDs often do not attend school, or have great difficulties learning in school, while adults cannot work. As a result, NTDs are leading causes of poverty in less developed nations. Yet, despite the scale of the NTD problem, just over 40 percent of those at risk receive the treatment they need.

Neglected tropical diseases fail to generate MDG interest

When the MDGs were created, NTDs were placed in a category of “other diseases.” To nobody’s surprise, this vague label did not generate much interest, compared to specifically named diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria. In fact, AIDS and malaria stimulated multibillion-dollar initiatives for mass treatment and prevention, including the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the President’s Malaria Initiative and the Global Fund.

In response to the lack of interest, a group of committed investigators who have devoted their lives to research, treatment, and prevention of NTDs worked with the World Health Organization to target these diseases through mass drug administrations, using a package of pills that could be delivered annually for only 50 cents per person.

By 2006, USAID initiated an NTD Program that produced achievements as impressive as those of other bilateral and multilateral organizations. According to USAID’s statistics, this program has delivered more than one billion NTD treatments in 25 low- and middle-income countries over the last decade. This support is complemented by the UK Department for International Development’s (DFID) efforts, demonstrating a good case of donor harmonization.

By 2012, the average cost of treatment was reduced to 22 cents per person per year, by delivering treatment for many diseases at the same time. This freed more resources for distribution of the expanded drug donations that were pledged in the London Declaration on NTDs by 13 pharmaceutical companies.

Impressive gains in control and elimination

Following its Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) in 2013, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington released data for 301 diseases and conditions, and some of the numbers reflect impressive gains in NTD control and elimination. This progress is due in large part to USAID- and DFID-sponsored interventions. It includes a 39 percent decrease in the prevalence of trachoma and a 32 percent drop in lymphatic filariasis (LF). Impressive reductions in the prevalence of Ascaris roundworm (45 percent) and onchocerciasis, or river blindness (51 percent), have been achieved through other mass drug administrations.

But this is a modest reflection of the true impact of NTD programs. When researchers looked at age groups that tend to have the most infections, the decrease in trachoma and LF prevalence was even greater: 65 percent for trachoma and 53 percent for LF. The world is on track to achieve USAID’s objective of eliminating these diseases by 2020.

Thankfully, NTDs have been included in a number of critical inputs into the post-2015 development agenda process, including the High Level Panel report released in May 2013 and the Open Working Group (OWG) proposal for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) released in July 2014. The OWG reportincluded a specific target for NTDs, alongside AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Choose the right indicator for SDGs

The next critical step for NTDs in the post-2015 process is to ensure that the right indicator is used to measure progress over the next 15 years. The NTD community strongly recommends the following indicator, as a global measurement tool: A 90 percent reduction in the number of people requiring interventions against NTDs by 2030.

In addition, we also need to consider the overlap between NTDs and other factors: nutrition; water, sanitation, and hygiene; maternal and child health; and education. Development goals cannot be achieved in isolation. In fact, NTDs are so inextricably linked to these development issues that their prevalence is seen as an effective proxy for broader socioeconomic and human development. The recently-published “worm index” demonstrates a high correlation between the prevalence of intestinal worms and development.

Finally, the SDGs need to incorporate a research and development agenda for NTDs, particularly for diseases not currently benefiting from major gains in mass treatment. This would include developing vaccines for hookworm infection, whose prevalence has decreased only five percent, and schistosomiasis, which has not decreased at all.

Hookworm vaccines are under development by our Sabin Vaccine Institute Product Development Partnership (Sabin PDP) in collaboration with the European HOOKVAC consortium, as is a vaccine for river blindness through The Onchocerciasis Vaccine for Africa Initiative. Most likely, vaccines would be combined with mass drug administrations.

In addition, NTDs such as Chagas disease and leishmaniasis urgently require new interventions, including new drugs being developed by the Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative, and the Sabin PDP’s therapeutic Chagas vaccine. Despite the lack of traditional market incentives to develop drugs for poor communities, the pharmaceutical industry has engaged in product development partnerships, and many have opened their compound libraries to academic and NGO partners.

Out of the spotlight, the NTD community has made significant strides. With explicit inclusion of these diseases in the SDGs, we can do even more. We have the opportunity to eliminate LF and trachoma before 2030, and reach key milestones in combating all NTDs through mass treatment efforts and the creation of new tools through research and development.

View this item also on the ILRI Livestock Matters online paper