Publications

The One Health Systems Transboundary Assessment for Priority Zoonoses (OHTAPZ) tool was developed to address the need for a multisectoral approach in assessing transboundary zoonotic disease threats within and across shared land borders. This study sought to implement recommendations from the tool’s initial pilot and revise it for further application.

As of 20 May, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in more than 173.1 million birds since the outbreak began in January 2022.

The International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) Monitoring and Evaluation Framework is designed to assist States Parties in assessing progress toward compliance and sustainable capacities under the IHR. The States Parties Self-Assessment Annual Report (SPAR) is the only mandatory tool in the 4-component framework.

Language inequities in global health stem from colonial legacies, and global health security is no exception. The International Health Regulations (IHRs), a legally binding framework published by the WHO, lay the foundation for global health security and state the roles and responsibilities States Parties are compelled to follow to improve their capabilities to prevent, detect and respond to potential public health emergencies of international concern.

A tool for cross-sectoral prioritization of zoonotic diseases, and mapping of systems for One Health coordination.

Never before has the ability to rapidly detect and characterize any pathogen, be it known or novel, been so important to protecting global health. Pathogen agnostic tools, such as next-generation sequencing (NGS), enhance global biological defense and public health by addressing this exact need, but they must be deployed in a proactive manner to reach their full benefit. Using pathogen agnostic tools only during an outbreak is too retroactive and does not allow time for containment, particularly of a novel pathogen. In this commentary, we propose the development of national guidelines for a proactive, pathogen agnostic wastewater surveillance system in the United States with a focus on localities identified for risk of zoonoses and international ports of entry.

Prior to 2020, most pandemic preparedness efforts centered on influenza. Some countries, such as Aotearoa (New Zealand)¹, were able to successfully adapt national pandemic influenza plans to the response to COVID-19, and global influenza surveillance systems were harnessed for SARS-CoV-2 (ref. ²). It is now critical that nations and the international community implement lessons learned from COVID-19 back into influenza preparedness³. This task is particularly urgent given both the emergence of a number of influenza spillover threats and exhausted and depleted public health systems globally.