10h to 12h:  Open to all

Prof. Julianne Meisner, University of Washington, Department of Global Health

“Livestock and the epidemiology of sleeping sickness: mechanisms and implications”

Julianne Meisner is a veterinarian and epidemiologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. She will be discussing her research using spatial epidemiology and causal inference methods to estimate the magnitude of and mechanism for the effect of livestock density on human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) risk, and evaluate the feasibility of HAT elimination with and without control of domestic animal reservoirs.

Dr. Beth Purse, UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology, Disease Ecology group

“Inter-disciplinary ecosystem approaches for understanding and mitigating zoonotic diseases”

Exposure to zoonotic diseases can trade-off against livelihood-critical activities, particularly in degraded tropical forest ecosystems. The emergence of zoonotic pathogens in such degraded environments is best understood and mitigated using inter-disciplinary, ecosystem approaches. These are where ecological dynamics and socio-political drivers of vulnerability are jointly studied at the human-animal-environment interface across affected landscapes. Moreover, One Health co-production of research and tools with cross-sectoral stakeholders can bridge gaps in knowledge and management of zoonoses between sectors. We describe how these approaches have been applied to a case study: human tick-borne infection, Kyasanur Forest Disease, affecting marginalised forest-dependent communities in south India, to inform and improve mitigation.

13h to 15h: Roundtable with Beth and Julianne.  

Please register here : https://forms.office.com/r/bgHiHhAVS9

Come discuss your work with our guests and other members of the spatial epidemiology and geography of health community in Belgium.