MoA and Other Ministries Develop Communication Strategy Using ‘One Health’ Approach
In preventing and controlling recurring and cross-sectoral zoonotic diseases and Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID), the ‘One Health’ approach forms the basis of the strategy and acts as the framework for planning EID communication. This is what the Director General of Livestock and Animal Health Services, Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) represented by the Director of Animal Health, Fadjar Sumping Tjatur Rasa, said when opening the Workshop on “The Development of National Communication Strategy to Support EID and Targeted Zoonoses Prevention and Control using a One Health Approach” conducted on 1-3 March 2018 in Bogor.
The workshop, involving multiple sectors and funded by USAID through the Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT2) Program, was attended by communication experts, such as Dr Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, Head of Data and Information of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB). Other contributors included Effendi Gazali, lecturer in Communication Sciences at the University of Indonesia, a representative of the Coordinating Ministry of Human Development and Culture (Kemenko PMK), staff of the Ministry of Health (MoH), and representatives of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF), USAID, FAO and the Preparedness and Response (P&R) project.
During the workshop, Fadjar Sumping stated that a ‘One Health’ approach is needed at every level of government to develop the EID communication strategy, and to strengthen the government’s capacity in preventing and controlling diseases in Indonesia. “I hope this workshop will formulate a national EID and zoonoses communication strategy that is cross-sectoral in nature, by using the ‘One Health’ approach, which will be applied at the national, provincial and district/city levels to articulate the same harmonized information,” explained Fadjar.
The Head of Zoonoses of Kemenko PMK, Rama Fauzi welcomed this activity positively. He thought that this communication strategy would complement and complete the already drafted PMK cross-sectoral One Health Coordination Guidelines in addressing zoonoses and EID extraordinary disease events (KLB)/outbreaks.
In line with Dr Rama, Sri Handani, MoH Directorate General of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) also supported a strong communication strategy in efforts to control diseases. However, she underlined the importance of a common understanding of the meaning of KLB in relation to disease outbreaks. “According to Law No. 4/1984 on Outbreaks, to date we have never experienced that condition. When an outbreak status is declared, the impact would be vast involving extreme social, political and economic consequences,” said Sri.
The MoEF representative, Dedi Chandra from Way Kambas National Park, Lampung, said that in his work area, the death of just one animal may be classified as an outbreak “as what we take care of are mostly wildlife whose populations are endangered, such as elephants, rhinos and tigers,” explained Dedi.
Dedi also said that cross-sectoral coordination, particularly with the MoA through Disease Investigation Centers (DICs) is quite good.
However, there is room for improvement on coordination with the human health sector. Following the workshop, a small cross-sectoral team will be established to further discuss and complete the development of the EID communication strategy. It is expected that by the end of this year the national EID and zoonoses communication strategy using a ‘One Health’ approach will be operational. (END)