Speaker
Description
Strong One Health (OH) research platforms are a cornerstone of pandemic preparedness. While many pathogens underlying acute febrile illnesses (AFI) are zoonotic, animal and OH research targeting AFI is limited and the underlying infectious agents often remain underdiagnosed. In 2022, we started the implementation of an interdisciplinary study to characterize AFI in Guinea, the Fever Project. A core objective of the project is to strengthen capacities for OH research and zoonotic disease risk reduction. The Fever Project consists of two parallel strands of questionnaires and specimen collection: 1) hospital patients presenting with acute fever, and 2) healthy community members and animal species commonly found in and near communities. Fundamental premises of the project are capacity strengthening and collaboration and coordination with national and local authorities, to ensure that the project’s research activities successfully contribute to national and regional epidemic preparedness and health security efforts. The Fever Project research platform has already provided opportunities for other OH collaborations, leveraging our collaborations and partnerships. We trained 25 Guinean partners during three workshops and three field-based trainings on laboratory and field techniques. The project also explicitly includes annual stakeholder meetings, for dissemination of information, solicitation of input, and to conduct programmatic evaluation of our collaborative research approach.
Keywords
capacity building, research platforms, acute febrile illness, Africa
| Junior Scientist Status | No, I am not a Junior Scientist. |
|---|---|
| Professional Status of the Speaker | Postdoc |
| Registration-ID code | ZOO23-538 |
Primary authors
External references
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