APHA Annual Meeting Housing and Registration Opens Soon!

By Eri Togami, APHA VPH Secretary/Treasurer

This year, the APHA Annual Meeting and Expo 2019 will take place on November 2 – 6, 2019 in Philadelphia. This year’s theme is "Creating the Healthiest Nation: For science. For action. For health", promoting public health research and evidence-based policy to promote the health of people locally, nationally, and globally.

The APHA Veterinary Public Health Special Interest Group (VPH SPIG) is a friendly group of professionals dedicated to promoting the importance of improving human, animal, plant and environmental health by employing an interdisciplinary, One Health approach. The annual meeting is an exciting opportunity for VPH SPIG members and colleagues to showcase their amazing research and policy work at oral and poster presentations, as well as to take inspiration from each other and discuss next steps forward at our business meeting.

At the annual meeting this year, the VPH SPIG will focus on the following topics:

• How does Veterinary Public Health support One Health issues?
• Occupational risks for zoonotic disease exposures (including those associated with pathogens developing antimicrobial resistance).
• One Health epidemiology and informatics: How can technological advancements help surveillance, diagnosis, reporting, and response to diseases and other Public Health issues?
• One Health surveillance of emerging zoonoses, vector-borne diseases, and the link to ecosystem change.
• One Health: Connecting the human-animal bond and the impacts this dynamic relationship has on the environment.

Make sure to register for the meeting and reserve your accommodations early because this meeting attracts over 12,000 public health professionals every year. Registration and housing reservations open on June 3. Visit APHA’s annual meeting website below for more information. See you all in Philadelphia!

APHA VPH National Public Health Week Recap

By Jessica Schwind, VPH Communications Chair

During the first full week of April every year, the American Public Health Association (APHA) brings together professionals, organizations, and communities across the United States for National Public Health Week (NPHW). NPHW is a great time to connect with fellow public health enthusiasts, as well as recognize all of the hard work conducted in the past year. Not only that, NPHW serves as an awesome platform for raising awareness of the importance of public health. APHA has been hosting NPHW for over 20 years now!

This year, National Public Health Week was held from April 1st to the 7th. Matching this year's annual meeting theme, NPHW focused on “Creating the Healthiest Nation: For science. For action. For health.” As public health professionals in the 21st century, it is important to allow these three core principles to guide our work in communities across the globe.

During the week, the APHA VPH SPIG took to social media to highlight the importance of prevention, advocate for healthy and fair policies that benefit all species, and share strategies for successful partnerships across human, animal and environmental health sectors. Each day of NPHW 2019 focused on a public health topic. Below were the daily themes we discussed on social media with an emphasis on One Health-related issues:

• Monday: Healthy Communities. Did you know the home you live in, the animals you come in contact with and the street you live on can affect your health? A healthy ecosystem affects all aspects of life here on earth! Today, share the news of how our health is interconnected. Support #OneHealth policies and programs that value health for all species.
• Tuesday: Violence Prevention. Did you know research has established significant correlations between animal abuse, child abuse, & other forms of violence? #OneHealth recognizes the importance of the human-animal bond & can be used to stop cruelty against all species!
• Wednesday: Rural Health. There is no better example of the interconnectedness of humans-animals-environment than in rural areas where livelihoods are dependent on the health of all sectors! A #OneHealth approach is needed to address #ruralhealth issues globally.
• Thursday: Technology and Public Health. From new data collection methods to the impact of social media, technologies are needed to bridge the animal, human and environmental health sectors. The #OneHealth approach will help promote effective communication and collaboration among all stakeholders!
• Friday: Climate Change. Climate change is one of the biggest threats to planetary health. Did you know animals, including wildlife, livestock and pets, may also be impacted by climate change? A #OneHealth approach is needed to fully understand how humans, animals and the environment will be affected.
• Saturday and Sunday: Global Health. Diseases can spread around the world very quickly, so it is important countries work together to build strong international partnerships with human, animal, and environmental health organizations.

The 2019 NPHW was a success! To keep up with all of the APHA VPH activities, including our efforts during next year's NPHW, be sure to connect with us on social media.

One Health in Action: Fighting Pandemics!

VPH member and partners join forces to prevent outbreaks

VPH SPIG executive board member, Venita Ramirez, is a doctoral student at University of South Florida School of Public Health. She also works as a Public Health consultant at the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine. Venita recently served as part of a tri-service (Air Force, Army, Navy) subject matter expert team. In March 2019, Venita, along with partners from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, traveled to Bangkok, Thailand, to conduct an initial planning conference.

They met with partners from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Center of Military Medicine and from the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences to discuss steps toward a fuller harmonization of cross-border public health surveillance and the prevention of disease outbreaks of international significance.

“The initiative will entail a ‘One Health’, multilateral approach in order to bridge gaps and to harmonize training, surveillance, and response efforts within ASEAN,” said Venita.

For more information, read the full article at Fighting Pandemics: Pacific Air Forces and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Center for Military Medicine join forces to prevent outbreaks.

NASA Health and Air Quality Applications Supports NPHW 2019

By Helena Chapman, VPH Communication Committee Member

Every April, National Public Health Week (NPHW), which is supported by the American Public Health Association (APHA), is celebrated to highlight key health priorities and encourage health educators, practitioners, and researchers to coordinate related health activities that address emphasized topics. Using the NPHW 2019 theme, “Creating the Healthiest Nation: For Science. For Action. For Health,” participants organized events that reinforced the daily themes of healthy communities, violence prevention, rural health, technology and public health, climate change, and global health.

For NPHW 2019, the NASA Health and Air Quality Applications and Communications Teams shared five projects on the NASA Applied Sciences Program’s Making Space for Earth website. They were also widely disseminated on social media, with the support of APHA Veterinary Public Health, George Washington University, the New York State Department of Health, One Health Commission, and One Health Initiative. These public health stories highlighted the use of Earth observation data in community health applications, related to the health effects of harmful algal blooms, extreme ambient temperatures, ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure, mosquito-transmitted West Nile virus (WNV), and global air pollution.

Space Views Aid Florida ‘Red Tide’ Health Alerts: Coastal accumulations of the dinoflagellate Karenia brevis can produce toxic red tides, where aerosolized brevetoxins can affect the respiratory system. A team led by Dr. Richard Stumpf, researcher from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), collaborated with state and federal end-users to combine satellite data from NASA’s Aqua and Terra missions and citizen science data from the HABscope smartphone app, in efforts to identify and forecast harmful algal blooms along the Florida Gulf Coast.

NASA Helps New Yorkers Cope with Summer Swelter: Exposure to extreme ambient temperatures can cause adverse health effects, including dehydration and respiratory and cardiovascular illness. A team led by Dr. Tabassum Insaf, researcher from the New York State Department of Health, collaborated with NASA and the National Weather Service to match NASA-sponsored North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) fine-scale temperature data with daily emergency room visits. This collaboration prompted several of New York State’s National Weather Service Forecast Offices to lower their threshold for issuing Heath Advisories in the summer of 2018, helping keep New Yorkers safe when the temperature rises.

Understanding Your UV Exposure Risk: Excess sunlight exposure to UV radiation can cause structural changes to skin cells and increase risk of skin cancer. A collaboration between NASA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Environmental Tracking Program used NASA Aura’s Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) data to map UV exposure across the United States.

Mosquito Meets MODIS: South Dakota Fights West Nile Virus (WNV): Mosquito-transmitted WNV has been reported with the highest per capita incidence in the state of South Dakota. A team led by Dr. Michael Wimberly, researcher from the University of Oklahoma, collaborated with NASA, South Dakota State University, and the South Dakota Department of Health, to use satellite data from the NASA-sponsored North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) and Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission to develop an operational WNV risk prediction system.

NASA Satellites Help Scientists Determine the Global Burden of Asthma: Ambient and indoor air pollution is the most significant global environmental health threat, which can exacerbate respiratory and cardiovascular disease. A team led by Dr. Susan Anenberg and Dr. Daven Henze, researchers from the George Washington University and University of Colorado in Boulder, respectively, collaborated with NASA to use satellite data from the NASA’s Terra and Aqua mission’s Moderate Resolution imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to estimate global levels of air pollution and subsequent burden of asthma.

These public health stories emphasize the need for transdisciplinary collaborations that integrate innovative data and technology into public health applications, allowing us to learn more about our surrounding environment. By understanding the potential environmental health effects to humans and animals, community members can be better informed and take appropriate precautions to safeguard their health. In this manner, we can follow the NPHW 2019 theme and promote a healthy nation through evidence-based science and community action.

VPH Member Spotlight: Meet our Program Planner

Special Guest: Dr. Thomas Doker, VPH SPIG Program Planner, Governing Councilor, and Immediate Past Chair

Lieutenant Colonel (Dr.) Thomas J. Doker is the Chief, Public Health Operations, 1st Air Force/Air Force North, Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. Lieutenant Colonel Doker grew up in Georgia and completed his undergraduate training at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia; he graduated from the University of Georgia School Of Veterinary Medicine with his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Degree in 1990. In June 2009, he completed a Master of Public Health Degree from the Georgia State University School of Public Health, Atlanta, Georgia. Lieutenant Colonel Doker is board-certified in Veterinary Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology. Prior to his last assignment, he was an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia. Additionally, he has served as a flight commander and division chief as well as deployed as a Division-level civil affairs veterinarian in Iraq.

Question 1) How did you first get interested in One Health/Veterinary Public Health as a concept?

I was first introduced to the One Health concept while interning at the CDC during my MPH year in 2008, I helped develop a surveillance system to track zoonotic diseases called the Zoonoses Integration Project. The CDC wanted to integrate human, animal, and vector-borne disease surveillance, essentially One Health surveillance. After presenting this project at the Infectious Disease Society meeting in 2008, I submitted an article to the One Health Initiative (OHI) newsletter and became an OHI supporter in 2009. The OHI motto of "One World-One Medicine-One Health" had a big impact on me. I realized that I had practiced One Health medicine for my 15 years of rural practice without realizing it. Whenever I saw a puppy with a scabies infestation, a bird with psittacosis, a cow with salmonellosis, or a horse with fistulous withers, I would ask if any family members/co-workers were showing symptoms compatible with zoonotic disease. I would educate folks what symptoms to look for, preventive measures needed to protect themselves, any environmental contamination concerns to consider, and advice to seek medical care, if needed.

Question 2) What is your favorite part about working in One Health/Veterinary Public Health?

My favorite part is collaborating with the vast number of colleagues and stakeholders needed when you believe in and practice One Health/Veterinary Public Health. Essentially, One World means that issues such as emerging/reemerging infectious diseases and climate change affect populations across national boundaries and thus international partners are important including both those within other countries and employed by global health organizations. One Medicine involves collaborating with multiple partners within the medical, veterinary, public health, and environmental fields to include their respective laboratory professionals. Thus, interacting with this extensive One Health network has been the best part of my public health career.

Question 3) You have been super involved with the Veterinary Public Health SPIG over the years and we have seen tremendous growth! As the current Awards Chair, Program Planner and Immediate Past Chair, what are some of your goals for this coming year?

I have enjoyed seeing the VPH SPIG grow since I joined in 2010, both in the number of members and the impact we have had within APHA. We now have SPIG members on both the APHA Governing Council and the Executive Board. I look forward to continue to enlarge our leadership team by offering multiple opportunities to SPIG members. I am looking for a member interested in helping to coordinate the SPIG's scientific meetings for the 2020 APHA Meeting. The APHA has waived the 2019 conference fee and will pay for an additional night's hotel so you can receive training from Ms. Donna Wright, who is an absolute joy to work with as the APHA Manager of Scientific Session Development. I especially look forward to mentoring a co-program planner over the next year while you build up your skills and confidence.

Question 4) Do you have any words of advice for members wanting to be more active in the group or in One Health, in general?

As mentioned above, I am very interested in advising any VPH SPIG members who wish to become more active in our group through joining committees, volunteering for leadership positions, and participating in our annual meetings. As Program Planner, I have sent out notices for abstract reviewers and will send out a notice shortly regarding session moderators. Please consider these opportunities when they come out. You can have no experience and we are happy to offer guidance to anyone that would like to discuss ways to be successful SPIG volunteers. For anyone wishing to discuss my career path, I have practiced veterinary medicine, public health, preventive medicine, epidemiology, emergency management, medical intelligence, nuclear power plant operation, farming, and many other cogs within the One Health community. I have been in private veterinary practice as well as multiple military and CDC positions. The key to being a One Health advocate is to keep a One World-One Medicine-One Health perspective wherever you work, to seek collaborative partners, and to always be ready to educate others on the One Health concept!

The VPH SPIG is appreciative of your time and service, Dr. Doker! Thank you!

Upcoming Events

May

Registration Open: 30th Annual Rabies in the Americas Conference

International Conference on One Health: May 23rd-24th

June

APHA Annual Meeting Housing and Registration Opens: June 3rd

APHA Annual Meeting Abstract Acceptance Notifications: June 3rd

First International Conference on Global Health Security: June 18th-20th

July

Speak for Health Advocacy Bootcamp: July 15th-16th