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The Federal Government has been urged to adopt one-health approach that would involve relevant agencies to tackle the emergence and re-emergence of disease outbreaks in the country.
National Coordinator of the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) Nigeria, Dr. Endie Waziri, who made the call at the 2nd Nigerian Field Epidemiology Training programme in Abuja, harped on bridging the link between animal and human health, adding that over 65 per cent of diseases that have caused infections in humans in the past few decades were of animal origin.
She noted that AFENET was working to bring together key players in both the animal and human health sectors to tackle those human infections caused by pathogens that are of animal origin.
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Waziri stated that AFENET was training vet doctors, laboratorians and other government health workers on how to respond to and contain such emerging and re-emerging diseases of animal origin.
Also speaking, the Chairman, Local Organising Committee of the conference, Mr. Joshua Obasanya, identified one-health approach as the surest way to address public health challenges and diseases emergence in the country.
He described field epidemiologists as the foot soldiers in tracking and analysing disease outbreaks before they become widespread.
