Headed by Dr. Helene Guis, the One Health Group is a team dedicated to the study of complex interactions between humans, animals, and the environment, particularly in relation to the transmission of zoonotic diseases like rabies, Japanese encephalitis, coronaviruses, etc.. The team develops different research works that monitor the health of humans alongside that of domestic or wild animals, identifying reservoirs and evaluating the prevalence and incidence of zoonotic pathogens in different hosts over space and time in order to promote efficient One Health surveillance, prevention and control strategies.
BCOMING (Prezode initiative) Biodiversity conservation to mitigate the risks of emerging infectious diseases
The Prezode initiative is an international initiative addressing all the challenges related to the prevention, surveillance, early detection and rapid response to risks of zoonotic pandemics and BCOMING is one of the first projects developed under this initiative. The goal of BCOMING is to reduce the risk of infectious disease outbreaks through biodiversity conservation and disease surveillance strategies. Funded by European Union’s HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101006482, the 4-year project (08/2022-07/2026) is implemented in three tropical biodiversity hotspots with different environmental and socio-cultural settings: in Southeast Asia (Cambodia), West Africa (Guinea and Ivory Coast) and the Caribbean (Guadeloupe). It aims to:
Healthy Territories Project
Healthy Territories (Santé et Territoires) is an EU and AFD-funded 5-year projet (2021-2026) implemented in Senegal, Benin, Lao PDR and Cambodia. In Cambodia, the project is implemented in Banan district, Battambang province. The project focusses on health as a leverage for the development of agroecological transitions. The aim is to develop living laboratories in which participatory tools are used to support agroecological transitions and assess their impact on human, animal, plant and environmental health.
DogZooSea
The DogZooSea project is developed under the Fonds de Solidarite pour les Projets Innovants (FSPI) One Health in Practice in Southeast Asia (OH SEA) which aims to create synergies and consolidate One Health initiatives in South-East Asia. The DogZooSea project (02/2022-04/2023), funded by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, through Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), aims to support research, laboratory capacities and collaborations with SE Asia countries on dog associated zoonotic diseases. Adopting a multidisciplinary One Health approach, it aims to improve knowledge and management of two major public health problems in Cambodia and neighbouring countries in SE Asia: rabies (for which dogs are the main reservoir) and arthropod-borne viruses (for which dogs could be sentinels for human risks of infection).
Cap-Rage
International health authorities support a major effort to eliminate canine rabies in humans by 2030. This plan is based on dog vaccination, better access to post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and increased awareness of the population. A previous work conducted by the epidemiology and Public Health Unit estimated that there are 800 deaths per year due to canine rabies in Cambodia. To accurately estimate the burden, it is necessary to have a reliable evaluation of PEP access in the country. Currently, PEP is available from 5 main centers, including 3 managed by the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia (IPC), but also in an unknown number of smaller Health Centers, without centralized data. The CAP-Rage project, which is financed by the FSPI (Fonds de solidarité pour les projets innovants), aims to evaluate the current provision of post-exposure prophylaxis for rabies in public and private structures. It also aims to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of human and animal health personnel on rabies, as well as their training needs and the impact of gender on these factors. The project will also aim to develop a public communication campaign to encourage people who have been exposed to rabies to seek PEP and will contribute to estimate the current burden of rabies in Cambodia.
