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Strategies for monitoring zoonotic diseases in the Republic of the Congo
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International audience. Emerging viruses, both zoonotic and vector-borne, pose a significant threat to global health due to a complex confluence of events involving the role of pathogen reservoirs and exposure risks, including their facili- tating and intrinsic host factors. The implementation of strategies allowing early detection, and thus anticipation of these events, represents one of the major keys to the control of these diseases. We describe here the strategy implemented in the early detection of zoonotic events in the Republic of the Congo. One of the weaknesses identified in the country’s zoonotic surveillance is the lack of an information relay system between the central level and the populations living at the wildlife interface. In addition, there is a lack of training of community and/or health workers in taking appropriate samples and transporting them, as well as an absence of appropriate diagnostic means. The main focus was the implementation of wildlife mortality surveillance combined with seroprevalence surveys and public education on the human-animal interface. The aim was to set up a network for reporting wildlife mortality in an area covering 1/6th of the national territory, coupled with specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) detection in at-risk populations and educational actions aimed at promoting behavioral change among people living at the human-animal interface. In addition, training of indigenous populations in reporting animal carcasses, collecting specimens and transferring them to laboratories were conducted. As a result, more than 6,600 people were trained and collected 58 carcasses. The second component was the establishment of a rapid response team of 30 people trained in field epidemiology, and the final part included the strengthening of diagnostic capacities in the country. The establishment of this strategy can serve as a model for early warning and highlights the importance of involving local populations, veterinary services through ecoguards, and human health services in the same health surveillance dynamic. Future seroprevalence surveys will add valuable information on spatial distribution and risk factors of contamination.
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