One Health: Disease prioritisation in Somalia

Posted on: 19 April 2023 by Farah Isse Mumin in April 2023 posts

In early February, the GCRF-funded One Health Regional Network for the Horn of Africa (HORN) met to attend the latest Zoonotic Prioritization Workshop for Somalia. These meetings are significant as Somalia has recently been a focus of funding that could improve the health and wealth of Somalia’s pastoral, agro-pastoral and urban populations. Farah Isse Mumin, a postgraduate student and One Health researcher, discusses the importance of One Health HORN and the impact it could have on Somalia.

Zoonotic diseases are a threat to the health of humans everywhere, but particularly in low-resource settings where there are high levels of interaction between humans and animals. The Horn of Africa has a large pastoralist population that lives closely with livestock and depends on them for their livelihoods, thus increasing the risk of zoonotic disease transmission.

One Health is the concept that the health and well-being of people is linked to the health of their animals and the environment.

One Health HORN

Between 2018 and 2022, the One Health HORN project worked to strengthen the capacity of One Health researchers in the region. This was through funding small grants, offering transdisciplinary training opportunities and building the research capacity of their academic institutions.

It was evident, however, that countries in the Horn of Africa were below the national level in terms of One Health institutionalisation and activities. In particular, due to instability and lack of an enabling environment, Somalia hadn’t previously attracted much One Health investment, unlike neighboring Ethiopia and Kenya.

Disease prioritisation

Following the conclusion of the HORN project in March 2022, IVES’s Dr Siobhan Mor secured additional funding through Liverpool’s block grant allocation to support ongoing One Health activity in the region.

In February a multi-sectoral zoonotic disease prioritization workshop for Somalia was held in Nairobi, Kenya. With technical support from the World Health Organization, Somalia’s National Institute of Health and the University of Liverpool, the event brought together over 50 stakeholders, including representatives from government, academia and NGOs to systematically identify and prioritise the most important zoonoses in Somalia. The workshop used the One Health Zoonotic Diseases Prioritization tool developed by CDC.

During the workshop participants were guided through the process of identifying diseases, developing criteria for measuring the importance of the diseases and then ranking diseases based on these criteria.

After three days of deliberations, the voting panel endorsed a list of the top prioritised zoonoses for Somalia, which included Rift Valley fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome, anthrax, trypanosomiasis, brucellosis, zoonotic enteric parasites, and avian influenza. The participants also brainstormed approaches for strengthening laboratory systems and networks to ensure early detection, workforce development, multisectoral collaboration, and pandemic preparedness.

Given the interest from Somalia’s stakeholders, there is much anticipation that the prioritised zoonotic diseases list and the subsequent recommended strategic activities will attract further interest and funding to control and prevent zoonotic diseases in the country.