One Health mini-symposium on April 3 to focus on climate change and infectious disease
The concept “One World, One Health” describes an awareness that human, animal and environmental health are all interconnected.
On April 3, experts from the University of Georgia, Emory University and the University of Liverpool, UK, will spend the afternoon sharing their One Health perspectives on how a changing climate might impact the incidence of infectious diseases in both people and animals around the globe.
The mini-symposium, titled “Climate Change and Environmental Health: Shifting Tides in Disease Emergence?,” will take place from 1-5 p.m. at the Paul D. Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences.
“Climate change may be a fact, but its influence on the range and distribution of infectious diseases and host populations, as well as changes in complex ecosystems and the environment aren’t well understood,” said Susan Sanchez, professor of infectious diseases in the College of Veterinary Medicine and an assistant director in the Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute.
One Health has gained new momentum among medical professionals, veterinarians, and scientists in the last decade, explained Sanchez, particularly in the face of emerging infectious diseases such as Dengue Fever, West Nile and enteric pathogens.
“UGA has robust expertise in many of the disciplines needed to prepare and respond to the infectious disease challenges the speaker’s will address, particularly from a One Health outlook,” said Sanchez, who co-organized the event with Duncan Krause, director of UGA’s Faculty of Infectious Disease, as part of her leadership project for the UGA Administrative Fellows Program.
“The Fellows Program has been instrumental in networking me with people and ideas that have helped shape what I hope will be a campus-wide initiative aimed at promoting the One Health concept at UGA,” said Sanchez. “This mini-symposium will initiate the conversations necessary to move forward and to lay the groundwork for an international symposium on One Health at UGA in 2013.”
Speakers at the One Health mini-symposium are Karen Levy, assistant professor of environment health and epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University; Erin Lipp, associate professor of environmental health sciences, College of Public Health, UGA; and Matthew Baylis, professor of epidemiology and population health, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liverpool, UK.
Sponsors include the UGA Faculty of Infectious Diseases, the Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute, the Georgia Oceans and Health Initiative, the University of Liverpool, and the British Consulate-General in Atlanta.
For more information, visit www.onehealth.uga.edu.
PRESS RELEASE: http://news.uga.edu/releases/article/one-health-mini-symposium-to-focus-on-climate-change-infectious-disease/
FLYER: http://www.onehealth.uga.edu/files/onehealth_April-Mini.pdf