The internal and preventive veterinary medicine and the continuing education unit at the college of veterinary medicine, in collaboration with the Swiss (TPH) Tropical and Public Health Institute organized its fifth virtual lecture entitled “Echinococcosis: from one health perspective” delivered by Prof. Dr. Jakob Zinsstag-Klopfenestein, the Deputy Head of the department of epidemiology and public health from the University of Basel in Switzerland and Prof. Dr. Athmar Khudhair Abbas from the University of Baghdad.
The lecturers aimed to emphasize the close link between human, animal and environmental health when facing the major challenges that threaten the global and regional health security, namely the spread of many common diseases, including echinococcosis that is a serious common parasitic disease often starts without symptoms and may last for years and that causes heavy economic losses in livestock with the destruction of the infected organs. The infection can be transmitted to human beings in two ways: the indirect way through unwashed vegetables, dirty water and utensils contaminated with the feces of infected dogs, or directly through contact with infected dogs especially for children, shepherds and animal breeders. The participants stressed on the urgent need for joint cooperation to control this disease in the country and to develop legislation that contribute to reducing its spread also increasing health awareness to avoid human infection by washing food and hands well and the overall monitoring of animal slaughter by the relevant authorities.
