Student Competition

While anyone can participate, One Health Day especially encourages students (secondary, undergraduate, graduate, professional) to set up One Health events that facilitate student delegates working together from different academic disciplines and backgrounds. Prizes are available to competing student teams in each global region and are awarded by a jury of renowned international One Health Experts.

Each year the Centre for Viral Zoonoses enters a team to compete. This team is comprised of postgraduate students of the Centre who manage and coordinate the event.

2018-2019

Rabies Plasma Donations

Human Rabies immunoglobulin is a scarce resource worldwide, with the number of hyperimmune donors being a limiting factor. Annually, rabies is responsible for 70 000 human deaths across the globe. These deaths are preventable with the correct and timeous administration of post-exposure prophylaxis. The need for hyperimmune rabies plasma donors is currently at its greatest.

This One Health initiative aims to raise awareness towards the rabies immunoglobulin donation program with an additional goal of registering new plasma donors. The project will involve collaboration with the South African National Blood Service, to educate and facilitate enrolment. Enrolment into the donation program is going to be further encouraged through a competition. The competition will run from December 2018 to December 2019. In this time, the donors are able to donate up to twice a month, with the top three donors receiving one of three study prizes.

All individuals are encouraged to enrol in the program as it is open to the general public. Only registered students of the University of Pretoria may compete for cash prizes. Rabies immunoglobulin is in desperate demand and your donations could save lives.

For more information contact: [email protected]

2017

Detect Zoonotic Neurological Arboviruses

Over the past decade, the Zoonotic arboviruses and respiratory research group (ZARV) has been running a One Health surveillance program to detect zoonotic neurological arboviruses such as West Nile virus and Middelburg virus across South Africa and SADEC countries. The 11th of November will be spent with horse owners and grooms at the Eventing Gauteng Championships and GEAL finals in Kyalami, Gauteng. This day focused on creating awareness regarding zoonotic arboviruses and the associated diseases in horses. The focus was placed on prevention, control of arboviruses, and the zoonotic risk involved. Horse owners were also invited to participate in the long term surveillance program of ZARV at the Centre for Viral Zoonosis, University of Pretoria.