Endemic diseases under spotlight

DEUS NGOWI in Arusha

. . . Extensive research on major human, animal ailments kicks off

ONE of the leading African study groups has embarked on extensive research on major diseases that are transmissible between animals and humans in East, Central and West Africa, with the view to bridge the gap and improve human and animal health and well-being, hence ensure food security.

Some of the fields, animals and wildlife to be examined by the fellows in the five-year study include national parks, conservation and reserved areas such as Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), Loliondo Conserved Area and others in the country and across East to West African countries.

Under the Afrique One-African Science Partnership for Intervention Research Excellence (ASPIRE), the researchers target Brucellosis, Rabies, Tuberculosis (TB) and Buruli Ulcer, Foodborne diseases and Nutritional illnesses, Zoonosis Syndromic Surveillance and Response Systems Addressing the first ASPIRE Annual Meeting here, Professor Bassirou Bonfoh who is the ASPIRE Director, said due to huge challenges facing the continent, they have resolved to strengthen research and training links between African institutions, particularly between Anglophone and Francophone to develop more robust research support and administration infrastructure.

Professor Bonfoh noted that the African Union (AU) initiative has built a strong network of more than 100 African researchers, effectively engaged in ‘One Health’ research across East and West Africa, including 20 post –doctoral research fellows, 18 PhD and 30 Masters students, all trained through the ASPIRE consortium.

He said Brucellosis cause huge economic drawbacks as animals are subjected to abortion, infects milk, hence loss to both meat and milk, while people who are infected by either contacting the animals or drinking milk contract the disease, with periodic fever that are difficult to detecting and is at times mistaken to malaria.

It leads to fatigue on patients, long-term use of drugs that are expensive and that means labour force is as well lost. One of the research co-leaders, Professor Rudovick Kazwala from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), specifically addressing Brucellosis research, said fellows would seek to identify species of brucellosis causing infections in human and animals, develop appropriate protocols for intervention including aspects of social science - knowledge, perception and behaviour.

Prof Kazwala said they would identify policy gaps and drivers for intervention, as well as develop and complement capacity in diagnosis in human, livestock and wildlife in corresponding regions so as to obtain control and prevention of the disorder.

He said the disease could be contracted by all mammals and study would look into how much wildlife is affected, saying it was typical in the Northern Zone of Tanzania.

A post-doctoral researcher, Tanzanian Ms Coletha Mathew from SUA, coming up with ‘Priorities for brucellosis control in Sub-Saharan Africa context, said she would be seeking to describe transmission dynamics of Brucella and get appropriate control strategy.

She said the present status of brucellosis and source of human infection would be elucidated that would enable the design and execution of an appropriate control and elimination tactic.

Another fellow, Mr Raphael Mwampachi would be using sniffer rats with the aim to improve and support the diagnosis of brucellosis by using the rats with accurate sense of smell, that are to be trained.

SUA has used the sniffer rats successfully in other areas and for Brucella, Mr Mwampashi is upbeat that it is a potentially faster screening method, hence suitable for active case finding, especially where large numbers of samples are to be analysed in resource-limited settings and complement existing diagnostic techniques.