One Health gaps leave communities at risk ^{CEFR B2}

The outbreak of Marburg virus disease in Jelinkon, a farming community near Ghana’s Mole National Park, highlights how local weaknesses can frustrate One Health efforts. A resident died before the illness was confirmed and contained. Nearly 30 community members who had contact with the deceased were traced, isolated and monitored; they reported high fever, severe headaches and bleeding. The World Health Organization says Marburg is a severe viral haemorrhagic fever transmitted from fruit bats and has no approved vaccine or treatment.

Local veterinary officer Stephen Dormateiha Bazilma says critical time was lost. With limited resources he collected samples, sealed them in a flask wrapped with plastic and sent them by public transport to laboratories in Tamale and then to Accra. He reports that farmers sometimes refuse to pay for testing, that he can be forced to pay out of pocket, and that he kept samples in his fridge when transport was delayed.

Ghana’s experience reflects a continental pattern: sporadic anthrax in Kenya and African swine fever in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Kenya have spread quickly because of poor biosecurity, free‑range farming, panic selling of sick animals and the lack of compensation for farmers who report and cull infected livestock. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has developed continental One Health frameworks and guidance, including the African Union Framework for Antimicrobial Resistance Control and new strategies on zoonotic disease prevention and on climate change and health.

Researchers argue the main gap is governance rather than technical knowledge. Rudolf Abugnaba‑Abanga calls for One Health and climate priorities to be mainstreamed into sector policies, budgets and performance indicators. Patrick Muinde notes fragmented surveillance and unclear roles across ministries, and experts cite figures that about 60 per cent of known infectious diseases are zoonotic and up to 75 per cent of emerging diseases originate from animals. Recommended steps include decentralised diagnostics, mobile labs, trained rapid response teams, stronger local governance, sustained financing and genuine community ownership to translate policy into practice.