The World Health Organization (WHO), a specialized health agency within the United Nations (UN) system, issued an important warning: approximately 60% of infectious diseases in humans originate in animals. Worldwide, there are more than 200 types of zoonoses, of which more than half (60%) are caused by recognized pathogens, such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, protozoa and fungi. These data highlight the continued need for surveillance and preventative measures to protect human and animal health.
Zoonoses account for 75% of emerging diseases, those that spread quickly among the population, such as Covid-19, dengue fever, measles, mumps, Ebola and malaria. According to the Ministry of Health, 62% of diseases on the mandatory notification list in Brazil are also zoonoses.
The way to contain the increase in these numbers is to focus on a single health approach – or one health. The concept makes the interconnection between human, animal and environmental health, proposing an integrated way to deal with public health challenges.
UniCuritiba – an institution of Ânima Educação, focuses on raising awareness as the flagship of the Saúde Ânica extension project. Coordinated by veterinarian Fernanda Cristina Bortolotto, the initiative works precisely on the tripod of human health, animal health and the environment.
“The Saúde Única project is an opportunity to improve the protection of public, animal and environmental health through social actions, dissemination of knowledge and policies for the prevention and control of pathogens and threats at the human, animal and environment interface”, he explains. the professor of the Veterinary Medicine course.
According to Fernanda, throughout last year UniCuritiba students took information about animal care, prevention of zoonoses and preservation of fauna to elementary schools in Curitiba. “Through lectures and awareness actions, the project increases community knowledge and helps reduce zoonoses,” she states.
The themes addressed by the One Health project in 2023 were in synergy with two of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Health and well-being (SDG 3) and Life on Earth (SDG 15).
“The main objective is to raise awareness among future citizens to care for and preserve our planet. We believe that it is possible to transform the world through education, starting with the communities and cities where we are located. This is what moves us”, says the professor dedicated to research and extension projects through Ânima Lab HUB – a network of experiments and acceleration of applied research.
Community engagement and accessible information
To fulfill its objective, UniCuritiba’s Saúde Única project promotes lectures in schools, awareness campaigns, dissemination of information on social networks, practical experiences in handling and caring for animals, social actions, aid campaigns for wild animal NGOs, fundraising donations and solidarity services.
The project was born in 2020 and, to date, more than 400 students from Veterinary Medicine, Biology, Biomedicine, Pharmacy, Nutrition, Dentistry and Physiotherapy courses have already dedicated themselves to the initiative. In 2023, eight lectures and two campaigns were held to collect food and other items for NGOs dedicated to pets in vulnerable situations.
This year, project coordinator Fernanda Bortolotto anticipates, a new partnership with Curitiba City Hall should be formalized to ensure the continuity of lectures and new awareness campaigns in schools in the city.
“It is impossible to dissociate human health from animal health or neglect the interference of the environment in this complex ecosystem. The increase in zoonoses is a global public health problem worsened by numerous factors”, explains the UniCuritiba professor.
Among the causes of the increase in zoonoses are environmental changes caused by deforestation and climate change, globalization and an increasing number of people moving between countries (a flow capable of accelerating the spread of outbreaks and pandemics), inadequate agricultural and livestock practices and without sanitary rigor, accelerated growth of cities and little basic sanitation infrastructure.
According to the veterinarian also working in the area of Science, Food Technology and Hygiene, Fernanda Bortolotto, the growth in cases of zoonoses also has a close relationship with socioeconomic aspects – such as poverty and social inequality -, misinformation on the risks of zoonoses and ineffective or insufficient measures to prevent and treat diseases.
Source: UniCuritiba, adapted by the Cães e Gatos team.
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Tags: infectious diseases transmitted
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