Anthrax outbreaks in the humans - livestock and wildlife interface areas of Northern Tanzania: a retrospective record review 2006–2016

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Background

Anthrax outbreaks in Tanzania have been reported from the human, livestock and wildlife sectors over several years, and is among the notifiable diseases. Despite frequent anthrax outbreaks, there is no comprehensive dataset indicating the magnitude and distribution of the disease in susceptible species. This study is a retrospective review of anthrax outbreaks from the human, livestock, and wildlife surveillance systems from 2006 to 2016. The objectives were to identify hotspot districts, describe anthrax epidemiology in the hotspot areas, evaluate the efficiency of the anthrax response systems and identify potential areas for further observational studies.

Methods

We prepared a spreadsheet template for a retrospective comprehensive record review at different surveillance levels in Tanzania. We captured data elements including demographic characteristics of different species, the name of health facility, and date of anthrax diagnosis. Also, we collected data on the date of specimen collection, species screened, type of laboratory test, laboratory results and the outcome recorded at the end of treatment in humans. After establishing the database, we produced maps in Quantum GIS software and transferred cleaned data to Stata software for supportive statistical analysis.

Results

Anthrax reported incidences over 4 years in humans were much higher in the Arusha region (7.88/100,000) followed by Kilimanjaro region (6.64/100,000) than other regions of Tanzania Mainland. The health facility based review from hotspot districts in parts of Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions from 2006 to 2016, identified 330 human anthrax cases from the selected health facilities in the two regions. Out of 161 livestock and 57 wildlife specimen tested, 103 and 18 respectively, were positive for anthrax.

Conclusion

This study revealed that there is gross under-reporting in the existing surveillance systems which is an obstacle for estimating a true burden of anthrax in the hotspot districts. Repeated occurrences of anthrax in livestock, wildlife and humans in the same locations at the same time calls for the need to strengthen links and promote inter–disciplinary and multi-sectoral collaboration to enhance prevention and control measures under a One Health approach.

Related collections

Most cited references 18

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

From “one medicine” to “one health” and systemic approaches to health and well-being☆

J. Zinsstag, E. Schelling, D Waltner-Toews … (2011)

Faced with complex patterns of global change, the inextricable interconnection of humans, pet animals, livestock and wildlife and their social and ecological environment is evident and requires integrated approaches to human and animal health and their respective social and environmental contexts. The history of integrative thinking of human and animal health is briefly reviewed from early historical times, to the foundation of universities in Europe, up to the beginning of comparative medicine at the end of the 19th century. In the 20th century, Calvin Schwabe coined the concept of “one medicine”. It recognises that there is no difference of paradigm between human and veterinary medicine and both disciplines can contribute to the development of each other. Considering a broader approach to health and well-being of societies, the original concept of “one medicine” was extended to “one health” through practical implementations and careful validations in different settings. Given the global health thinking in recent decades, ecosystem approaches to health have emerged. Based on complex ecological thinking that goes beyond humans and animals, these approaches consider inextricable linkages between ecosystems and health, known as “ecosystem health”. Despite these integrative conceptual and methodological developments, large portions of human and animal health thinking and actions still remain in separate disciplinary silos. Evidence for added value of a coherent application of “one health” compared to separated sectorial thinking is, however, now growing. Integrative thinking is increasingly being considered in academic curricula, clinical practice, ministries of health and livestock/agriculture and international organizations. Challenges remain, focusing around key questions such as how does “one health” evolve and what are the elements of a modern theory of health? The close interdependence of humans and animals in their social and ecological context relates to the concept of “human-environmental systems”, also called “social-ecological systems”. The theory and practice of understanding and managing human activities in the context of social-ecological systems has been well-developed by members of The Resilience Alliance and was used extensively in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, including its work on human well-being outcomes. This in turn entails systems theory applied to human and animal health. Examples of successful systems approaches to public health show unexpected results. Analogous to “systems biology” which focuses mostly on the interplay of proteins and molecules at a sub-cellular level, a systemic approach to health in social-ecological systems (HSES) is an inter- and trans-disciplinary study of complex interactions in all health-related fields. HSES moves beyond “one health” and “eco-health”, expecting to identify emerging properties and determinants of health that may arise from a systemic view ranging across scales from molecules to the ecological and socio-cultural context, as well from the comparison with different disease endemicities and health systems structures.

0 comments Cited 301 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

The ecology of Bacillus anthracis.

Martin Hugh-Jones, Jason Kenna Blackburn (2009)

The global distribution of anthrax is largely determined by soils with high calcium levels and a pH above 6.1, which foster spore survival. It is speculated that the spore exosporium probably plays a key part by restricting dispersal and thereby increasing the probability of a grazing animal acquiring a lethal dose. 'Anthrax Seasons' are characterized by hot-dry weather which stresses animals and reduces their innate resistance to infection allowing low doses of spores to be infective. Necrophagic flies act as case-multipliers and haemophagic flies as space-multipliers; the latter are aided by climatic factors which play a key part in whether epidemics occur. Host death is a function of species sensitivity to the toxins. The major function of scavengers is to open the carcass, spill fluids, and thereby aid bacilli dispersal and initiate sporulation. In the context of landscape ecology viable spore distribution is a function of mean annual temperature, annual precipitation, elevation, mean NDVI, annual NDVI amplitude, soil moisture content, and soil pH.

0 comments Cited 112 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

The ecology of anthrax spores: tough but not invincible.

D C Dragon, P Rennie (1995)

Bacillus anthracis is the causative agent of anthrax, a serious and often fatal disease of wild and domestic animals. Central to the persistence of anthrax in an area is the ability of B. anthracis to form long-lasting, highly resistant spores. Understanding the ecology of anthrax spores is essential if one hopes to control epidemics. Studies on the ecology of anthrax have found a correlation between the disease and specific soil factors, such as alkaline pH, high moisture, and high organic content. Researchers initially suggested that these factors influenced vegetative anthrax bacilli. However, subsequent research has shown that vegetative cells of B. anthracis have very specific nutrient and physiological requirements and are unlikely to survive outside a host. Review of the properties of spores of B. anthracis and other Bacillus species suggests that the specific soil factors linked to epidemic areas reflect important environmental conditions that aid the anthrax spores in causing epidemics. Specifically, high levels of calcium in the soil may help to maintain spore vitality for prolonged periods, thereby increasing the chance of spores encountering and infecting a new host. Cycles of runoff and evaporation may collect spores dispersed from previous epidemics into storage areas, thereby concentrating them. Uptake of large doses of viable spores from storage areas by susceptible animals, via altered feeding or breeding behavior, may then allow the bacterium to establish infection and cause a new epidemic. Literature search for this review was done by scanning the Life Sciences Collection 1982-1994 using the keywords "anthrax" and "calcium and spore."

0 comments Cited 65 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Contributors

Elibariki Reuben Mwakapeje: elibariki.reuben.mwakapeje@nmbu.no , emwakapeje75@gmail.com

Sol Høgset: sol.hogset@nmbu.no

Robert Fyumagwa: robert.fyumagwa@gmail.com

Hezron Emmanuel Nonga: nongahezrone@gmail.com

Robinson Hammerthon Mdegela: rmdegela2012@gmail.com

Eystein Skjerve: eystein.skjerve@nmbu.no

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Public Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Public Health

Title: BMC Public Health

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-2458

Publication date (Electronic): 5 January 2018

Publication date PMC-release: 5 January 2018

Publication date Collection: 2018

Volume: 18

Electronic Location Identifier: 106

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.415734.0, Epidemiology and Diseases Control Section, Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, ; P. O. Box. 9083, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

[2 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2226 9754, GRID grid.452871.d, Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), ; P. O. Box. 661, Arusha, Tanzania

[3 ]ISNI 0000 0000 9428 8105, GRID grid.11887.37, Department of Veterinary Medicine and Public Health, , Sokoine University of Agriculture, ; P. O. Box. 3021, Chuo Kikuu Morogoro, Tanzania

[4 ]ISNI 0000 0004 0607 975X, GRID grid.19477.3c, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, ; P. O. Box. 8146 Dep., N –, 0033 Oslo, Norway

Article

Publisher ID: 5007

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-017-5007-z

PMC ID: 5755297

PubMed ID: 29304765

SO-VID: 500f7947-afc6-4dc0-b616-ce0f090bc100

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

History

Date received : 4 May 2017

Date accepted : 20 December 2017

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100008119, Norges Miljø- og Biovitenskapelige Universitet;

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health

Keywords: anthrax outbreaks,wildlife interface areas,record review,northern tanzania

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health

Keywords: anthrax outbreaks, wildlife interface areas, record review, northern tanzania

Anthrax outbreaks in the humans - livestock and wildlife interface areas of Northern Tanzania: a retrospective record review 2006–2016

Read this article at

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Related collections

Global Health Next Generation Network

Most cited references 18

From “one medicine” to “one health” and systemic approaches to health and well-being☆

The ecology of Bacillus anthracis.

The ecology of anthrax spores: tough but not invincible.

Author and article information

Contributors

Journal

Affiliations

Article

History

Funding

Categories

Custom metadata

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 639

Cited by 43

Most referenced authors 201