Informative note

Towards a One Health Surveillance System for avian influenza

Hacia un Sistema de vigilancia sanitaria de influenza aviar con enfoque Una Salud

0000-0003-3535-010XPastor Alfonso^{1  *}  , 0000-0003-2498-2494Laura Cunha Silva²  , 0000-0001-7238-948XDamarys de las Nieves Montano Valle¹  , 0000-0003-2253-6087Oshin Ley García¹  , 0000-0003-4561-2126María Irian Percedo Abreu¹  , 0000-0002-7321-5980Salome Durr²  , 0000-0002-7367-5178Luis Pedro Carmo³ 

¹National Center for Animal and Plant Health (CENSA), WOAH Collaborating Center for Disaster Risk Reduction, San José de las Lajas 32700, Mayabeque, Cuba.

²Veterinary Public Health Institute, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Liebefeld, Switzerland.

³Norwegian Veterinary Institute, Ås, Norway.

Following calls from international organizations to develop more resilient health systems, a project proposal entitled "Building resilience to health hazards to improve population health and well-being" was prepared. This project plan was also aligned with the Cuban strategy to foster preparedness against emerging hazards. The project was funded by the Centro Latinoamericano-Suizo (CLS-HSG), Leading House for the Latin American Region, and it initiated in 2020.

Our approach for fostering resilience focused on increasing the capacity to produce information on emerging health hazards, enabling faster, more effective and more efficient responses. The project was a first step on the path towards the design and implementation of a multi-sectoral and collaborative One Health Surveillance (OHS) system in Cuba.

For this purpose, two workshops were organized in Havana to gather input from stakeholders involved in the surveillance of two health hazards relevant to Cuba, influenza viruses with zoonotic potential and antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

The workshops were held in September 2022, linked to a National One Health Conference in Cuba. A total of 34 and 32 participants from various stakeholder groups relevant to influenza and AMR, respectively, participated. The Constellation Analysis tool was used to guide participants through the workshops (¹). The benefits and challenges experienced during these workshops are summarized in a paper published in the CABI One Health Case journal (²).

Figure 1 One Health Surveillance Workshop in September 2022, Havana, Cuba./ Taller de Vigilancia Una Salud en septiembre de 2022, La Habana, Cuba. 

The members of the project team (Laura Cunha Silva, Damarys de las Nieves Montano Valle and Luis Pedro Carmo) successfully applied for the 2023 Transformative Research Challenge (TRC) of the World Food Forum (WFF) to follow up on the initial findings. This new proposal aimed at developing an integrated OHS System for Avian influenza viruses with zoonotic potential. To gather the necessary information, a stakeholder consultation workshop was held in Cuba in June 2024.

Representatives of the various health-related sectors were present. The group encompassed 25 participants from various sectors such as academia, civil defense and civil society organizations. The workshop aimed at promoting cross-sectoral and transdisciplinary collaboration, using Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom (DIKW) methodology. Stakeholders were introduced to DIKW principles, a methodology that promoted stakeholder insight into how data, interrelated sectoral information and the One Health approach contributed to evidence-based decision making (³).

There was active participation and cooperation from the participants in carrying out all the proposed activities. Positive comments were made about the methods and the relevance of the workshop. The methodological approach adopted to carry out the workshops also enabled the participants to become familiar with participatory research methods applied to complex health situations.

This series of multidisciplinary and intersectoral workshops laid the foundation for the design of a OHS system for two relevant complex topics, Avian influenza viruses with zoonotic potential and AMR.

Figure 2 Participants of the Integrated Epidemiological Surveillance Workshop for One Health, June 2024, Havana, Cuba./ Participantes del Taller de Vigilancia Epidemiológica Integrada por Una Salud, junio de 2024, La Habana, Cuba. 

References

1.  Schäfer M. Constellation analysis. td-net toolbox profile (20). Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences: td-net toolbox for co-producing knowledge. transdisciplinarity.ch/toolbox. 2022; Available from: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7015074

2.  Valle D de las NM, García OL, Hernandez BD, Abreu MIP, Pérez DQ, Silva LC, et al. Toward a One Health Surveillance System in Cuba: Co-Productive Stakeholder Engagement. One Heal Cases. 2023 Jul 29;

3.  Choi BCK, Barengo NC, Diaz PA. Public health surveillance and the data, information, knowledge, intelligence and wisdom paradigm. Rev Panam Salud Pública [Internet]. 2024 Mar 8;48:1. Available from: https://iris.paho.org/handle/10665.2/59318

Received: August 26, 2024; Accepted: August 30, 2024

^*Correspondence to: Pastor Alfonso. E-mail: [e-mail]

Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest related to commercial or financial relationships.

Authors' contribution: Pastor Alfonso: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Writing - review & editing. Laura Cunha Silva: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Funding acquisition. Damarys de las Nieves Montano Valle: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft, Investigation, Methodology, Funding acquisition. Oshin Ley García: Investigation, Methodology; María Irian Percedo Abreu: Investigation, Methodology. Salome Durr: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Funding acquisition. Luis Pedro Carmo: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Funding acquisition.