Service
Priming future scientists in global health
Preparing to monitor a possible disease outbreak sounds like the work of world leaders, however for approximately 50 Toppenish High School students this was all in a day’s work during their recent visit to WSU’s School for Global Animal Health.
The students’ visit was part of an ambassador program—funded by the Washington Global Health Alliance and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—that sparks teens’ interest in careers in the sciences, specifically in fields related to global health. The School for Global Animal Health is a partner in the program.
The all day event focused onfinding creative mechanisms for evaluating information, making decisions then communicating those decisions to others—in this case during a hypothetical health crisis. It provides hands-on experience in science and its application at the societal level.
Professor Bill Sischo, an expert in food safety and global health, led the day-long learning sessions by creating a potential outbreak scenario as the backdrop for the experiential learning module complete with a State called “Bliss”, counties and institutions that would be affected. Divided into groups, students assumed roles of leaders in their respective institutions, which included two hospitals, a department of health, and a veterinary hospital.
The program actively demonstrated how research affects human health. It enabled students to appreciate the complexity of global health investigation and communication.
Students experienced the process of a potential disease outbreak through the process of investigating a specific infectious disease while focusing on the following:
Prevention: Students discussed the role of culture, active listening and factors imperative when working to change human behavior to protect public health.
Diagnosis: Students evaluated primary bacterial culture plates and classified the primary isolates into more specific categories based on carbohydrate fermentation and antimicrobial resistance, integrated epidemiologic information about human and animal disease with the microbial epidemiology, and developed summaries of the critical data to share between the groups.
Communication: Student groups created a target message communicated to the press based upon the data available, collaboration with other relevant fictitious institutions, and setting some goals and follow up.
WSU prepares for role in monitoring swine flu outbreak
As a member of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, Washington’s Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory has prepared for heightened surveillance and testing during the current outbreak of swine influenza.
“Our laboratory is ready to conduct heightened surveillance for the human H1N1, the so-called swine flu virus, if it occurs in animals,” said Terry McElwain a professor in the School for Global Animal Heath and executive director of the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory.
The Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory is a collaborative unit of the School for Global Animal Health and shares in the mission to conduct heightened surveillance for diseases that occur at the interface of humans and animals.
“We encourage producers to contact the laboratory if they have any concerns or if they want to submit samples,” McElwain said.
Tests at WSU are designed to provide rapid results for animal samples within a matter of hours, which if positive would be further characterized and immediately reported to the appropriate state agencies, the National Veterinary Services Laboratory, and the Centers for Disease Control. Further verification would then determine whether the positive result was due to the H1N1 human virus.
An inside look at policy-making
Local Policy-Making: Examining the Intersection of Global, National and Local Policy
OLYMPIA, Wash. - Future leaders in global food and animal health gain valuable insights into decision-making at the state and provincial levels.
The October 2008 event gave graduate and professional students an inside look at how state-level policies governing food and animal health are forged. The group addressed pending legislation regarding critical trade and animal health issues at the nexus of global trade agreements, national priorities recognizing the diesease status of trading partners, state-level priorities for protecting local industry, and monetary constratints. This included conversations with senate staff, state-level budget officers, agriculture leaders, media representatives, and lobbyists.
The three-day event was organized by Global Initiative for Food Systems Leadership (GIFSL) partner Bill Sischo, professor in the School for Global Animal Health at Washington State University as part of a series of policy programs. Learn about upcoming programs.
“The program gave participants a very real taste of policy and politics that can’t be duplicated in the classroom.”
—Bill Sischo, program organizer, GIFSL partner, and professor in the School for Global Animal Health, Washington State University
“It made me appreciate what makes legislation pass successfully and what can bring it down. It demystified the process.”
—Patrick Pithua, veterinary medicine graduate student, University of Minnesota
“We…came away from the course with better understanding of how we can impact policy.”
—Grace Carter, veterinarian and MPVM student, University of California
Forging partnerships to monitor zoonotic disease
The School for Global Animal Health aims to develop a model for zoonotic disease surveillance and detection of both known and emerging agents in Sub-Saharan Africa. Finding countries to partner in this initiative is a critical step for its success.
Kenya and Uganda
Faculty work on-site to understand current animal health surveillance efforts and interaction between groups conducting animal and human health surveillance. They explore ways to enhance current efforts by developing a zoonotic disease-surveillance model.
Malawi
Faculty seek ways to establish a surveillance project in Malawi, utilizing the infrastructure of Washington State University’s long-standing agricultural development program there. Technicians in more than 2,500 Malawian villages use text messaging to route questions on agricultural production to central authorities.
Sierra Leone
Researchers are talking with a potential partner who is working to establish a "pathogen discovery lab" in Sierra Leone, but must find ways to overcome the partner’s limited knowledge of animal health and lack of comprehensive diagnostic systems.