One Health: How human, environmental, and animal health intersect

Science with a Twist

⚡ We can't limit ourselves to only humans and animals to fight diseases and cure illnesses. To cure diseases and illnesses, we need to understand how the environment, humans, and animals intersect. Professor Akebe explains, "We get that whole cycle that starts again. It [waste] leaves from our homes. It leaves from our hospitals. It gets into the treatment plants, gets into the river. It is used to irrigate our crops, goes back to the animals, and you see the whole vicious cycle continue. So that is where we now say that to solve that issue, we can't just limit ourselves to humans. We can't limit ourselves to animals. We can't limit ourselves to the environment. We need to have those three compartments coming together."

⚡ The challenges of working as a microbiologist in a rural community. Having traveled to many of Africa's remote places, Professor Akebe believes that the continent's environment can expect a positive change in the future. He talks about what it's like working as a microbiologist in these rural communities: "The major challenge of working in a rural community is it limits, first of all, the quality; it doesn't compromise, but it limits based on the objective. It limits the quality of work you can do because you want to go cheaper. You have everything that you want, you know that you can get it, but it becomes a little expensive now because you can surround the facility, and so, you have to outsource."

⚡ Giving back to the community by educating them. According to Professor Akebe, we need to help our communities understand our research. He says, "One of the things I'm doing now is that I'm working with one of my mentors in the US…and we are trying to see how to translate this whole concept of One Health and antimicrobial research and antimicrobial resistance into cartoons. We will translate them into cartoons so that even our kids who are watching TV can learn from that. So any form in which such messages can go out to the community, for me, is the best because I feel like it's unfair for the communities where we do research to not understand what we are doing."