Tanzania’s Vice President Dr Mohammed Gharib Bilal (left) unveils a pull up banner to symbolize the launch of One Health in Tanzania initiative which will pull together health institutions to work together towards identifying, preventing and eradicating communicable diseases in Tanzania. Right is One Health Central and Eastern Africa (OHCEA) Country Focal Person Prof Japhet Kilewo. The launch was done in Arusha on Tuesday. Note: One Health in Tanzania is (Afya Moja Tanzania)
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Health institutions in Tanzania has pulled together to form a one health network which would harmonize activities done by these institutions which aims at minimising duplication of efforts to fight communicable diseases.
The network launched on Tuesday by Tanzania’s Vice President Dr Mohammed Gharib Bilal in Arusha, will see three institutions - the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Southern African Centre for Infectious Diseases Surveillance (SACIDS) and One Health Central and Eastern Africa (OHCEA)- working together to identify, prevent and eradicate communicable diseases in Tanzania.
Speaking during the opening of the 27th Annual Joint Scientific Conference of the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) and the 2nd One Health Conference in Africa which is jointly organized by NIMR, SACIDS and OHCEA, Dr Bilal said the Government will continue to support all national, regional and international commitments for surveillance, risk management and control of communicable diseases.
He said that the fact that NIMR has joined forces with the SACIDS and OHCEA to hold the largest gathering that has brought human health and animal health experts under one roof to discuss measures on how to control the pandemic is a good start of partnership which will transform Tanzania’s health sector landscape.
The conference goes with the theme, “Changing Landscape in Health Research in Africa.” According to Dr Bilal, the theme is timely, considering that the government is preparing to implement its 4th National Health Research Priorities. “Tanzania, like many other Sub-Saharan Africa countries is challenged by a number of emerging and re-emerging communicable diseases,” he said and added, “I am glad to learn that one of the sub-themes of this conference is addressing “One Health in Africa.”
Elaborating on the One Health in Tanzania initiative, OHCEA Country Focal Person Prof Japhet Kilewo said the network will see several one health networks in Tanzania which share the common mission of driving transformational change for improvement and wellbeing of humans, animals and the ecosystem through multidisciplinary research, training and community service, working together.
“These bodies have recently met and charted out a way forward including the formation of a ONE HEALTH FORUM that would harmonize the activities of these networks so that duplication of efforts is minimized.
“Experience with the AIDS epidemic indicates that we have lost many opportunities which would have enabled us to investigate and limit the spill over of agents of disease from animals to humans. We should therefore not allow other epidemics to take us by surprise like HIV/AIDS,” he said.
Prof Kilewo mentioned that in order to do that healthcare institutions must be prepared to identify potential human disease agents which reside in animals (both wild and domestic). They must also prepare to prevent these disease agents from spilling over to humans but when they cause overt disease in humans we must be prepared to control and/or treat it.
Elaborating National Health Priorities (2013-2020) initiative, the Director General of NIMR, Dr Mwele Malecela said that the priorities which are set every five years allow them to re-examine what the key areas for research should be.“This is done in collaboration with several stakeholders and most prominently Tanzaia Health Research forum, Dr Mwele said and added that this is the fourth set of priorities set in since 1999.”
About SACIDS Regional Strategic Plan focusing this year to 2020, the SACIDS Executive Director, Prof Mark Rweyemamu said they set about developing the capabilities of young African scientists and catalyzing institutional change of mindset.Prof Rweyemamu said, in this initiative they have introduced the concept of a community of practice for research themes.
In the current five years, he said they have focused on five specific diseases themes, namely Ebola, Rift Valley Fever, Tuberculosis, Plague and Foot-and-Mouth disease.
“We have targeted the poor communities, especially in the areas of contact between people livestock and wildlife,” Prof Rweyemamu said.