Kenya marks world zoonoses day with call for stronger disease surveillance

Kenya joined the rest of the world in commemorating World Zoonoses Day, drawing attention to the country’s limited ability to detect and respond rapidly to zoonotic diseases. The day marks the milestone when French scientist Louis Pasteur administered the first rabies vaccine in 1885, serving as a reminder of the persistent threat posed by zoonoses, diseases transmissible between animals and humans.

Speaking during a media workshop hosted by the Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (CEMA), health experts emphasized that only 10% of counties in Kenya currently have functional community-based disease reporting systems. This leaves a large portion of the country vulnerable to outbreaks, especially in rural regions where zoonotic diseases like anthrax, rabies, and brucellosis are prevalent.

Dr. Samuel Kahariri, a PhD Fellow at CEMA and a former national epidemiologist, stressed the urgent need to adopt a “One Health” surveillance approach. This model encourages integration across human, animal, and environmental health sectors to ensure early detection and coordinated responses. “Diseases don’t wait for bureaucracy, they spread fast, and we must respond faster,” Dr. Kahariri warned.

Zoonotic diseases are responsible for about 60% of all infectious diseases in humans, with more than 75% of emerging diseases traced to animal sources, according to the World Health Organization. Yet Kenya’s current surveillance systems largely operate in isolation, with legal and technical barriers impeding real-time data sharing among human and animal health agencies.

Experts at the workshop revealed that delays in detecting infections in animals often translate to missed opportunities for early interventions, allowing diseases to spill over into the human population. They also noted that existing national health surveillance systems are fragmented and do not fully utilize available data sources, from climate indicators to livestock records and human post-mortem reports.

To address these challenges, the experts proposed several key interventions. These include deploying AI-powered e-surveillance systems with geospatial tracking, equipping counties with rapid diagnostic tools, and enhancing coordination between Community Disease Reporters (CDRs) and Community Health Promoters (CHPs). They also recommended legally mandating the reporting of even zero-case findings to improve the accuracy and timeliness of outbreak alerts.

The experts underscored that integrating these systems and practices could help Kenya avoid future epidemics and minimize public health losses. “If we do a good job at deep prevention, we can keep the human population safe. This is the foundation of our emphasis on integrated surveillance,” said one participant.

The World Zoonoses Day observance serves as a wake-up call for Kenya to invest in surveillance systems and embrace a unified health strategy, particularly in the face of increasing human-animal interactions driven by urban expansion and environmental changes.