Africa's Nomadic Pastoralists and Their Animals Are an Invisible Frontier in Pandemic Surveillance



Hassell, James M, Zimmerman, Dawn, Fevre, Eric M ORCID: 0000-0001-8931-4986, Zinsstag, Jakob, Bukachi, Salome, Barry, Michele, Muturi, Mathew, Bett, Bernard, Jensen, Nathaniel, Ali, Seid
et al (show 6 more authors) (2020) Africa's Nomadic Pastoralists and Their Animals Are an Invisible Frontier in Pandemic Surveillance. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AND HYGIENE, 103 (5). pp. 1777-1779.

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Abstract

The effects of COVID-19 have gone undocumented in nomadic pastoralist communities across Africa, which are largely invisible to health surveillance systems despite the fact that they are of key significance in the setting of emerging infectious disease. We expose these landscapes as a "blind spot" in global health surveillance, elaborate on the ways in which current health surveillance infrastructure is ill-equipped to capture pastoralist populations and the animals with which they coexist, and highlight the consequential risks of inadequate surveillance among pastoralists and their livestock to global health. As a platform for further dialogue, we present concrete solutions to address this gap.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Animals, Humans, Communicable Diseases, Emerging, Pneumonia, Viral, Coronavirus Infections, Population Surveillance, Ecosystem, Health Policy, Transients and Migrants, Delivery of Health Care, Africa, Pandemics, Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 14 Sep 2020 08:41
Last Modified: 18 Jan 2023 23:33
DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.20-1004
Open Access URL: https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.20-1004
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3100811