With the support of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Biological Threat Reduction Program, we initiated the first collaborative One Health investigation of the ecology and epidemiology of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) in Tanzania. With a collaborative team of Tanzanian, U.S., and U.K. partners, the results from this project will improve Tanzania’s capacity to evaluate and manage the risk of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) and to reduce the threat to public health both locally and internationally.
The project collected fundamental data on CCHFV, conducted rigorous scientific analyses and supported the Government of Tanzania in the development of policies to prevent CCHF outbreaks.
We used a One Health approach to investigate the following questions:
- Is CCHFV circulating in ticks, livestock, and wildlife in Tanzania?
- Is CCHFV circulating in the human population in Tanzania?
- Does CCHFV prevalence, seroprevalence and vector abundance vary across an environmental disturbance gradient from peri-urban communities to pastoral rangeland to protected wildlife areas?
The project supported capacity development in Tanzania, specifically training Tanzanian post-graduate students (two PhD and three MSc), developing laboratory capacity to conduct CCHFV diagnostics, training Tanzanian field researchers and providing valuable data to Tanzanian government partners and stakeholders to develop policies to prepare for and reduce the threat of CCHF.
Results from the project are being analysed and will be presented in due course.
