Ijara district in Kenya was one of the hotspots of Rift Valley fever (RVF) during the 2006/2007 outbreak, which led to human and animal deaths causing major economic losses. The main constraint for the control and prevention of RVF is inadequate knowledge of the risk factors for its occurrence and maintenance. This study was aimed at understanding the perceived risk factors and risk pathways of RVF in cattle in Ijara to enable the development of improved community-based disease surveillance, prediction, control and prevention. A cross-sectional study was carried out from September 2012 to June 2013. Thirty-one key informant interviews were conducted with relevant stakeholders to determine the local pastoralists’ understanding of risk factors and risk pathways of RVF in cattle in Ijara district. All the key informants perceived the presence of high numbers of mosquitoes and large numbers of cattle to be the most important risk factors contributing to the occurrence of RVF in cattle in Ijara.
The current project, Infectious Diseases: preparing for the future, looks ahead10–25 years. Its aim has been to assess the future threat of diseases in plants, animals and humans, and to develop a vision of how those challenges could be managed through new systems for disease detection, identification and monitoring (DIM).
Africa has been a key consideration, in line with the priorities of the UK presidencies of the G8 and EU in 2005. This report brings together all of the African strands of the project.
In many regions, disaster risk is continuing to increase, mostly because greater numbers of vulnerable people and assets are located in exposed areas. It is vital to start reversing these trends. Over the next 18 months, there will be negotiation and hopefully agreement of three major international policy frameworks, each with a key interest in reducing disaster risk and minimising disaster losses. These are 1) the post-2015 framework on disaster risk reduction(DRR); 2) the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)– a way of prioritising development actions; and 3)an international agreement on climate change – to establish global action on tackling climate change beyond 2020. If well integrated, these frameworks should be able to provide a unique opportunity to deliver a coherent strategy and implementation plan to address the drivers of disaster risk.A key way of linking these frameworks, particularly the SDGs and the post-2015 framework on DRR,lies in establishing common global goals,