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The pages contained within the One Health category all focus on diseases that affect both humans and animals and the interconnections between species. These diseases require a multi-system approach from both the veterinary and medical perspective and have far reaching implications due to effects on the environment, productivity, economics and conservation efforts. Many of the diseases are of great importance within developing countries due to a lack of resources, high population densities, farming practices and cultural influences amongst others.

The pages contained within the One Health category all focus on diseases that affect both humans and animals and the interconnections between species. These diseases require a multi-system approach from both the veterinary and medical perspective and have far reaching implications due to effects on the environment, productivity, economics and conservation efforts. Many of the diseases are of great importance within developing countries due to a lack of resources, high population densities, farming practices and cultural influences amongst others.  

These pages form part of a wider project aiming to develop a One Health app for use on mobile phones to enable access to information within remote areas of Africa in order to educate the local communities, increase awareness of diseases, improve farming practices and hence reduce the impact of zoonotic diseases within the developing world.

The aim of this project is to develop a database of key information on zoonotic diseases detailing how the diseases affect both humans and animals and control measures that can be used, both local and widespread. This information will be in the form of a ‘factoid’ available on smartphones by downloading an app. The aim of the information is to be concise and easily available in remote areas where no internet access and information is available. This will be aimed at vets, vet students and doctors who can then disseminate the information to the local farmers.

The factoids contain information on the potential risk to human health, an overview of the disease, clinical signs, diagnosis, treatment and other differential diagnoses both in humans and animals. Each factoid will contain a link to a WikiVet page (requiring internet access) where more detailed information can be found.

 

Within the factoid a link to [http://www.epicollect.net EpiCollect] will be present, which will enable disease cases to be logged using the phone’s GPS. This will mean a disease database can be formed, and potential disease outbreaks can be identified which in the future will lead to better disease control.

 

The WikiVet pages will follow a similar format to the factoids but contain more detailed information including more information on the links between humans, wildlife and livestock. There will also be a separate page following the same format detailing the human condition.

Initially the aim is to concentrate on covering zoonotic diseases within East Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi) with the potential to expand the area later on in the project. The information will be translated into local languages, and in the future may be adapted to regional variations.