Today, November 3rd, we celebrate One Health Day worldwide! One Health is a movement to integrate human health, animal health and environment for a more holistic, multi-disciplinary approach to solving some of the world’s greatest challenges.

Conservation Through Public Health programs routinely address wildlife, human and environmental health through our integrated approach. We envision a world where prevention and control of disease transmission where wildlife, people and their animals meet is achieved while cultivating a winning attitude to conservation and public health in local communities living near protected areas in Africa.

One Health achievements from CTPH include training Community Conservation Animal Health Workers to take blood samples from cattle in Kasese District, Uganda to test for the
zoonotic disease, Rift Valley Fever. It is estimated that at least 75% of emerging and re-emerging diseases are either zoonotic (spread between humans and animals) or vector-borne (carried from infected animals to others through insects).

Village Health and Conservation Teams (VHCTs) promote family planning, hygiene and sanitation, and health-seeking behavior to reduce disease transmission between humans and animals. They teach communities about the impacts their health and livelihoods have on the environment and are leading the effort to improve sustainable agriculture and use of resources like fuel wood around the national parks. Together, VHCTs and their communities have better health and improved attitudes towards conservation.

Our Human and Gorilla Conflict Resolution Teams, or HUGOs for short, are working with Uganda Wildlife Authority to safely reduce harmful human and gorilla interactions. HUGOs are trained to collect gorilla faecal samples in partnership with Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and CTPH to monitor gorilla health. The samples are tested for parasites and diseases, including zoonotic diseases.

CTPH is a partner of the One Health Commission dedicated to promoting improved health of people, domestic animals, wildlife, plants and the environment around the world. We are proud to support the One Health Commission in the One Health Day Campaign to promote efforts around the world to bring together human, animal and environmental health disciplines.