Malaria Interventions with Elements of the Ecohealth Approach： Experiences in Latin America

There are several interventions for malaria control in Latin America that are in line with the principles of the Ecohealth approach. The objective of this paper was to identify interventions for malaria control with elements from the Ecohealth approach to evidence guiding elements, limiting and facilitating factors and recommendations for future interventions. A literature search was performed in six databases： Medline, Scopus, Central, IS! Web of Knowledge, Embase and BVS-Lilacs. To complement this information, several researchers were asked to participate in in-depth interviews. Ten articles, 6 reports from 3 IDRC interventions and 1 report of the PAMAFRO project were identified. Interventions included different methodologies to help improve the environment and health of the population. Interviewees coincided in analyzing malaria as a complex disease. They argued about the importance of carrying-out partnerships with various stakeholders in order to achieve sustainability of the interventions. The Ecohealth approach implies dialogue between community and researchers; participation of different disciplines; active participation of the various stakeholders; creation and maintenance of strategic alliances in pursuit of sustainability and scaling up of interventions into public policy.

Ecohealth research in Southeast Asia: past, present and the way forward

Ecohealth is a comprehensive approach to understanding health at its human,animal and environmental interface in a socio-ecological systems context.This approach was introduced widely in Southeast Asia(SEA)by the Canadian International Development Research Centre(IDRC)in the late 2000s.Aimed at addressing the problem of emerging infectious diseases(EIDs),numerous such projects and activities have been generated throughout the region.Ecohealth is increasingly converging with the One Health approach,as both movements emphasise a holistic understanding to health.We conducted a scoping review by considering all of the Ecohealth programmes,initiatives and projects that have been implemented in SEA since the introduction of the approach,and also gathered information from peer-reviewed literature.The objective of this paper is to review Ecohealth activities within SEA over the last 10 years to address the lessons learned,challenges faced and the way forward for Ecohealth in the region.Activities range from those focusing purely on capacity,projects focusing on research and projects covering both.Achievements to date include,for example,research contributing to the field of infectious diseases in relation to social ecological factors and associated urbanisation and agricultural intensification.Challenges remain at the project design and implementation level,in the available capacity and coordination to develop Ecohealth research teams in the countries,gauging teams’assimilation of Ecohealth’s underlying tenets and their translation into sustainable disease prevention and control,as well as in the ability to scale up Ecohealth projects.We suggest that the way forward for Ecohealth should be from a regional perspective in terms of research,training and policy translation using Ecohealth in combination with the One Health approach.

Identifying the impediments and enablers of ecohealth for a case study on health and environmental sanitation in Hà Nam, Vietnam

Background:To date,research has shown an increasing use of the term“ecohealth”in literature,but few researchers have explicitly described how it has been used.We investigated a project on health and environmental sanitation(the conceptual framework of which included the pillars of ecohealth)to identify the impediments and enablers of ecohealth and investigate how it can move from concept to practice.Methods:A case study approach was used.The interview questions were centred on the nature of interactions and the sharing of information between stakeholders.Results:The analysis identified nine impediments and 15 enablers of ecohealth.Three themes relating to impediments,in particular-integration is not clear,don’t understand,and limited participation-related more directly to the challenges in applying the ecohealth pillars of transdisciplinarity and participation.The themes relating to enablers-awareness and understanding,capacity development,and interactions-facilitated usage of the research results.By extracting information on the environmental,social,economic,and health aspects of environmental sanitation,we found that the issue spanned multiple scales and sectors.Conclusion:The challenge of how to integrate these aspects should be considered at the design stage and throughout the research process.We recommend that ecohealth research teams include a self-investigation of their processes in order to facilitate a comparison of moving from concept to practice,which may offer insights into how to evaluate the process.

An ecohealth assessment of poultry production clusters (PPCs) for the livelihood and biosecurity improvement of small poultry producers in Asia

Background:Poultry production cluster(PPC)programs are key strategies in many Asian countries to engage small commercial poultry producers in high-value production chains and to control infectious poultry diseases.This study assessed the multiple impacts of PPCs through a transdisciplinary ecohealth approach in four Asian countries,and drew the implications for small producers to improve their livelihoods and reduce the risk of spreading infectious diseases in the poultry sector.Methods:The data collection combined both quantitative and qualitative methods.It comprised:formal structured household survey questionnaires,measuring the biosecurity level of poultry farms with a biosecurity score card;and key informant interviews.Descriptive statistics were used to process the quantitative data and a content analysis was used to process the qualitative data.Results:This research found that poultry farms in clusters do not necessarily have better economic performance than those outside PPCs.Many farmers in PPCs only consider them to be an advantage for expanding the scale of their poultry operations and improving household incomes,and they are less concerned about-and have limited capacities to-enhancing biosecurity and environmental management.We measured the biosecurity level of farms in PPCs through a 14-item checklist and found that biosecurity is generally very low across all sample sites.The increased flies,mosquitoes,rats,and smells in and around PPCs not only pollute the environment,but also cause social conflicts with the surrounding communities.Conclusion:This research concluded that a poultry cluster,mainly driven by economic objectives,is not necessarily a superior model for the control of infectious diseases.The level of biosecurity in PPCs was found to be low.Given the intensity of poultry operations in PPCs(farms are densely packed into clusters),and the close proximity to residential areas of some PPCs,the risk of spreading infectious diseases,in fact,increases.Good management and collective action for implementing biosecurity measures are key for small producers in PPCs to address common challenges and pursue health-based animal production practices.

生态健康的科学内涵和系统调理方法

从复合生态系统生态学和人类健康科学的理论出发,阐述了生态健康的科学内涵、生态系统关联以及生态健康研究的3个层次:人体生理和心理健康,人居物理环境、生物环境和代谢环境(包括衣食住行玩、劳作、交流等)的健康,以及产业和区域生态服务功能(包括水、土、气、生、矿和流域、区域、景观等)的健康;探讨了生态健康调理的系统方法;提出了生态健康建设的难点、重点、亮点和能力建设的切入点。