One Health: Tackling Zoonotic Disease in Belize  

A zoonotic disease is an infectious illness that has jumped from animals to humans. They can be transmitted in many ways, such as bacteria or parasites, but may even spread through unconventional agents such as food, water or the environment. Today, stakeholders in the health sector and environmental organizations participated in a workshop with several regional partners to discuss twenty-eight diseases that pose a threat to the region and identify how to tackle at least five primary concerns for the country.

 

Russell Manzanero, Director, Epidemiology Unit, MOHW

“We’re gathered here the different ministries we have from environment, agriculture. We have from administrative health and wellness. We’re gathered here with different stakeholders, of course, to look at what is the prioritization of diseases in the country. We’re part of an entire membership within the globally of how we want to prioritize the different illnesses within our own country. Yes, we might be following different illnesses, but definitely when we start to look at prioritization of illnesses, we can look at different agendas, we can look at the strategies that would be geared towards what we would call under the One Health approach. What this means is that we can now follow diseases, we can put into strategies and follow, monitor these illnesses at the different levels within the different ministries. As we mentioned, we really cannot work alone when it comes to following illnesses and surveillance. It’s basically a network. It’s basically working under the One Health approach with the different ministries and agencies towards that goal.”

 

Anthony Mai, Chief Environmental Officer, DOE

“Zoonotic issues is the transfer of disease from animals to humans. Alright? The idea is that everything in the environment is connected. And so As different disease comes up, emerge and spread globally, the scientists and the doctors are looking at the sources of those disease and several of those sources comes from directly from the environment in terms of bacteria, microorganisms, animals, et cetera, that is within the environment, basically. But when the tricks of urbanization and development expands, people become exposed to different things within the environment that they were not exposed to before. And so because of these tricks. When exposure happened, normally disease could be transmitted from animals to humans through that means.”