Volume 129, March 2015, Pages 87–95
One World One Health? Social science engagements with the one medicine agenda
Highlights
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- Zoonotic disease emergence is not a purely biological process.
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- Animal-to-human transmission of disease depends on how people interact with animals.
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- An expanded One Health model for human-animal exposure accounts for social factors.
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- The expanded model was the conceptual basis for a human-animal exposure study.
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- Illustrative results from Lao PDR demonstrate how social factors can affect exposure.
Abstract
Zoonotic
disease emergence is not a purely biological process mediated only by
ecologic factors; opportunities for transmission of zoonoses from
animals to humans also depend on how people interact with animals. While
exposure is conditioned by the type of animal and the location in which
interactions occur, these in turn are influenced by human activity. The
activities people engage in are determined by social as well as
contextual factors including gender, age, socio-economic status,
occupation, social norms, settlement patterns and livelihood systems,
family and community dynamics, as well as national and global
influences. This paper proposes an expanded “One Health” conceptual
model for human-animal exposure that accounts for social as well as
epidemiologic factors. The expanded model informed a new study approach
to document the extent of human exposure to animals and explore the
interplay of social and environmental factors that influence risk of
transmission at the individual and community level. The approach
includes a formative phase using qualitative and participatory methods,
and a representative, random sample survey to quantify exposure to
animals in a variety of settings. The paper discusses the different
factors that were considered in developing the approach, including the
range of animals asked about and the parameters of exposure that are
included, as well as factors to be considered in local adaptation of the
generic instruments. Illustrative results from research using this
approach in Lao PDR are presented to demonstrate the effect of social
factors on how people interact with animals. We believe that the
expanded model can be similarly operationalized to explore the
interactions of other social and policy-level determinants that may
influence transmission of zoonoses.
Keywords
- Lao PDR;
- Hmong;
- Lao-Tai;
- One Health;
- Emerging zoonoses;
- Social factors;
- Human-animal interface;
- Mixed-methods study
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
