Skip to main content

Achieving Sustainable Global Capacity for Surveillance and Response to Emerging Diseases of Zoonotic Origin Workshop Summary (2008) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

6 Concluding Participant Discussions on Facilitating Communication and Developing a Globally Sustainable Surveillance System
Pages 81-86

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 81...
... Participants remarked that one lesson from the H5N1 avian influenza crisis was the value of making sure that "when WHO speaks, when OIE speaks, when FAO speaks, the message is the same," referring to the World Health Organization (WHO) , the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)
Read the entire page →
From page 82...
... The challenge of communication is not simply a matter of public relations, as several participants noted. It is the primary tool for tackling major objectives, such as changing behaviors to reduce public health risks.
Read the entire page →
From page 83...
... The wildlife biology community, for example, is rarely represented in public health discussions, and "a lot of wildlife biologists don't think disease is an issue in wildlife population ecology." Yet ecology -- the way organisms interact with each other in a changing environment -- is "an organizing principle" for understanding both epizootic and zoonotic diseases, and this integration is very important. Another participant described the potential contributions that could come from building on the Smithsonian Institution's Global Earth Observatories -- a network of 29 existing and 2 planned global long-term ecological monitoring sites that have been monitored for up to 25 years -- to contribute to the development of a systematic, long-term global emerging disease wildlife surveillance research program.
Read the entire page →
From page 84...
... As one workshop participant observed, "When you see people dying, you are already very late in the epidemic." A participant also questioned whether we are "missing the ball" on biosecurity because "[disease] surveillance is a critical biosecurity tool."   false FMD rumor from a Kansas sale yard ran rapid through the market place in 2001, A causing the cattle futures to drop dramatically and major companies relying on beef to lose valuable shareholder equity.
Read the entire page →
From page 85...
... The participant further observed "Those countries need to sustain their surveillance efforts or they will surely be re-infected." The countries that have already tackled their problems effectively are investing in "an insurance policy," stated participants, by helping countries that still have the disease work on monitoring and eradication. The compelling message is that sustained global disease surveillance is a basic public health necessity because ongoing interactions among humans, animals, and the environment will inevitably lead to disease emergence or re-emergence and the impact of disease reverberates throughout national and global social, economic, and trade systems.
Read the entire page →
From page 86...
... However, both the human and animal health communities need to make the case that the benefits of sustainable disease surveillance do not rest just in "a dollar return on investment, but in social, economic, and political stability." Participants suggested that the justifications for funding must be framed carefully: "Say you had prevented SARS, how would you prove it? Even if you made a good case, somebody else would say you didn't, that it would never have taken off and it was all a false alarm." Other discussants agreed, noting that if the case for disease surveillance efforts were made on the basis of a single pathogen, for example, "You are in for a line item removal when [the disease]
Read the entire page →

Key Terms

  • animal health
  • zoonotic diseases
  • health communities
  • west nile
  • global disease

  • major companies
  • health risks
  • sharing information
  • sustainable disease
  • surveillance efforts

  • punitive sanctions
  • participant offered
  • emerging disease
  • participant noted
  • health agencies

  • planned global
  • disease outbreak
  • disease work
  • global emerging
  • human disease

  • animal products
  • information sharing
  • participant observed
  • control animal
  • wildlife biologists

  • health necessity
  • global social
  • wildlife biology
  • disease wildlife
  • health issue


    • This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
    More information on Chapter Skim is available.