ONE of Zimbabwe’s leading Veterinary Pharmacist, Dr Amos Marume has called on government and the health sector at large to invest heavily towards Zoonotic disease surveillance and early detection in order to avoid and contain future diseases outbreaks.
By Michael Gwarisa
Zoonotic Diseases are disease transmitted from animals to humans and Dr Marume’s call comes in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic that is also believed to have originated from bats and other wild animals.
Addressing delegates at the just ended Retail Pharmacists Association conference in Harare, Dr Marume said Zimbabwe was at an equal risk of having Zoonotic related disease outbreaks due to an increase in domestic animal husbandry in Zimbabwe as people are becoming small holder farmers.
If we continue to ignore Zoonotic diseases or pathogens, we might not have a future as humanity to talk about because some of the viruses coming out from there are threatening everyone. In terms of public health, you can’t talk of public health when you are only focusing on human health,” said Dr Marume.
He added that there was also an increased risk of future Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) as livestock and domestic animals were taking the same medications and antibiotics as human beings.
“Much of what you are giving your chickens you would find there is penicillin or other drug residue there. We need to all embrace veterinary pharmacy and start to include veterinary issues as we are planning around public health. On top of Zoonosis, we would also worry about drug residues.
“Understand that when you are calling for an underdone T-Bone, if that cow was subjected to certain drugs or anything that could be in the blood that you see in an underdone nice meat, it means that drug might still be very active and you are likely going to get subtherapeutic concentration. If it is an antibiotic, again risks of drug resistance comes in. If it is a drug that has hormonal disturbing issues, then you also have hormonal imbalances etc.”
