One Health Central and Eastern Africa (OHCEA)

The One Health approach recognizes that human health, animal health, and ecosystem health are inextricably linked, and that collaboration across the sectors is needed to achieve more rapid, mutually beneficial and effective responses. 

OHCEA has its roots in the Leadership Initiative of Public Health in East Africa (LIPHEA) and the Health Alliance, which were being spearheaded by the School of Public Health at Makerere University (MakSPH) in Uganda in collaboration with the School of Public Health at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania since 2005. In 2011, the two schools expanded membership to schools of veterinary medicine in the region to form what came to be known as OHCEA. The mission of LIPHEA was leadership in management of disasters and personnel training. The activities of LIPHEA were funded by USAID through the Higher Education until 2009. The main US partner in the LIPHEA team was the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Inspired by the evolution of One Health, LIPHEA invited schools of veterinary medicine in the region to join hands in the formation of OHCEA which gradually moved from disaster preparedness and response to One Health Workforce (OHW) strengthening in participating countries. Based on opportunities available within the Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) program, OHCEA quickly became engaged with OHW strengthening in the participating countries. With the formation of OHCEA the total number of schools was expanded to 14 (7 being from the public health area and 7 from the veterinary area) spread into six countries from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, DRC, and Rwanda.

OHCEA Strategic Goals

1. Strengthen a growing institutional network in terms of leadership, governance, technical assistance and information-sharing across countries in order to transform ourselves to deliver One Health.
2. Support national agencies to build capacity and efficiency for surveillance, reporting systems and outbreak response in country and across borders.
3. Provide pre-service, in-service and community education, training and outreach to expand the size and capabilities of the One Health workforce.
4. Build and leverage strategic partnerships with other organizations and networks for mutual awareness and benefit.
5. Strengthen infrastructure capacity (Labs, Information Technology, Human resources) and facilitate resource sharing to support One Health.
6. Generate evidence based data and share state of the art information to advance training, science and practice, to inform policy.

Setting the pace for One Health research:

In the year 2016, the network developed a research agenda for One Health in the region which will help address pertinent one health issues including epidemics. The research agenda strategic areas of focus include, bat-transmitted diseases, hemorrhagic fevers, neglected diseases, antimicrobial resistance, biosecurity/biosafety, ecosystem health–non-communicable disease, endemic diseases, and food safety.

Achievements

A multi-disciplinary team from OHCEA member institutions and Secretariat set out to develop the networks’ draft research agenda and a resource mobilization plan to guide resource mobilisation for research projects. The draft research agenda was grounded on OHCEA’s niche as the only network of universities in the region under MakSPH and the College of Veterinary Medicine Animal Resources and Biosecurity (COVAB) that works to secure the health of humans, animals and eco-systems through strengthened high educaton using multi-disciplinary teaching and learning practices and environment in Africa-a hotspot of emerging and re-emerging diseases.

40 diseases of significant public health and economic importance locally, regionally and globally were identified and the conditions categorized into 7 themes recommended as the focus for One Health research for 5 years.

These 7 themes include 1)Bats transmitted Disease; 2)Hemorrhagic Fevers; 3)Neglected Diseases with emphasis on NTDs; 4)Anti-Microbial Resistance; 5) Bio-security and Bio-safety (Bio-Risk Management); 6) Ecosystem Health-Non Communicable Diseases/Conditions (including its linkages to food security and food safety); 7) Endemic Diseases.