In the last brief, you proposed a nutritiously sound grab and go breakfast system for OCC. Your efforts were a node in the support of Healthy Campuses. On the other end of access to nutrition is food insecurity. As the undercurrent there are disparities fueled by poverty that are affecting populations health. So how does all of this fit in the One Health framework? Interconnectivity in fact is the pillar of systems thinking. We cannot look at public health in isolation. This is the big take home message of this course.
Watch the film from the mindset that you are in fact watching the most important message of this course.
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden. (2018, March 12). One Health One Planet Systems Thinking. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtaSh_QOz8w
Before you dismiss the significance, think about the fact that a remote Guinean village of Meliandou was ground zero of the Ebola outbreak. This resulted in more than 11,000 deaths and jumped continents (see picture below).
EBOLA CASES OUTSIDE OF AFRICA PER WHO DATA
Source: https://goo.gl/images/R3YGN9
Watch Dr. Farmer’s view on the Ebola outbreak and the human rights model as a node in the systems approach to containment through treatment practices.
CDC. (2014, March 7). Making the Case for Prevention: Healthy Corner Stores. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_VkvizRZyg
The jump from animals to humans at ground zero is the genesis of the outbreak. World Health Organization (2018) documents the jump tied to food security and nutrition that bat meat provides to the Guinea culture within the conflict within the region.
During the country’s long years of civil unrest, natural resources were exploited by mining and timber companies. The ecology in the densely-forested area changed. Fruit bats, which are thought by most scientists to be the natural reservoir of the virus, moved closer to human settlements. Hunters, who depend on bushmeat for their food security and survival, almost certainly slaughtered infected wild animals. The wives of the hunters prepared the meat for family meals. Though no one knew it at the time, the Ebola virus had found a new home in a highly vulnerable population.
Meliandou is located in what is today designated as the outbreak’s “hot zone”: a triangle-shaped forested area where the borders of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone converge. All three countries were deeply impoverished, and their health infrastructures severely damaged, during years of civil unrest. Poverty is pervasive. Large numbers of people do not have steady, salaried employment. Their quest to find work contributes to fluid population movements across extremely porous borders – a dream situation for a highly contagious virus. Following the young boy’s death, the mysterious disease continued to smoulder undetected, causing several chains of deadly transmission.
Review the infographic on Ebola from ground zero to containment. Where are the systems thinking opportunities within this outbreak?
EBOLA INFOGRAPHIC
Source: https://www.123rf.com/photo_37344321_stock-vector-ebola-virus-flat-infographics-set-with-transmission-symptoms-prevention-elements-charts-and-world-ma.html
Imagine the public service announcements that must reach a global culture and empower it citizenry and public health workers along with the health care teams. The omnipresent threat of viral outbreaks of infectious disease is that significant. There is a lot to reflect upon.
World Health Organization. (2018). Ground zero in Guinea the ebola outbreak smoulders undetected for more than 3 months. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/ebola-6-months/guinea/en/
Provide these two requirements.
- In a word document, and in no more than FIVE sentences, state your opinion on the significance of One Health and Systems Thinking convincing your audience this framework is the lasting legacy of this course.
- Embed a picture, picture quote, or a picture you are inspired to share based on your statement. Provide a caption to your picture to explain your selection.
Sample Solution
