Living Safely With Bats: Lessons in Developing and Sharing a Global One Health Educational Resource

As part of a public health behavior change and communication strategy related to the identification of a novel ebolavirus in bats in Sierra Leone in 2016, a consortium of experts launched an effort to create a widely accessible resource for community awareness and education on reducing disease risk. The resulting picture book, Living Safely With Bats, includes technical content developed by a consortium of experts in public health, animal health, conservation, bats, and disease ecology from 30 countries. The book has now been adapted, translated, and used in more than 20 countries in Africa and Asia. We review the processes used to integrate feedback from local stakeholders and multidisciplinary experts. We also provide recommendations for One Health and other practitioners who choose to pursue the development and evaluation of this or similar zoonotic disease risk mitigation tools.

Nematode intestinal parasites of children in rural Guinea, Africa: prevalence and relationship to geophagia

BACKGROUND

Intestinal parasitism is common among children in developing countries, but the risk factors for infection are not well characterized.

METHODS

A stool examination was performed on 286 randomly selected children aged 1-18 years from three rural villages in Guinea, Africa. Information collected by questionnaire was used to examine the relationship between geophagia and infection with intestinal nematodes acquired by ingestion versus skin penetration.

RESULTS

Fifty-three per cent of children were infected by at least one type of soil-transmitted nematode. Geophagia was reported by parents to occur in 57%, 53%, and 43%, of children ages 1-5, 6-10, and 11-18 years, respectively. The pattern of geophagia by age and gender of the children more closely resembled the infection pattern for the two orally acquired and soil-transmitted nematodes (Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura) than it did the infection pattern for the two soil-transmitted nematodes that infect by skin penetration (hookworm, Strongyloides stercoralis).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings demonstrate that geophagia is an important risk factor for orally acquired nematode infections in African children. Education regarding geophagia prevention should be an integral component of any soil-transmitted parasite control programme.