Human health improvement in Sub-Saharan Africa through integrated management of arthropod transmitted diseases and natural resources
AUTOR(ES)
Baumgärtner, Johann, Bieri, Markus, Buffoni, Giuseppe, Gilioli, Gianni, Gopalan, Hiremagalur, Greiling, Jürgen, Tikubet, Getachew, Van Schayk, Ingeborg
FONTE
Cadernos de Saúde Pública
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO
2001
RESUMO
A concept of an ecosystem approach to human health improvement in Sub-Saharan Africa is presented here. Three factors mainly affect the physical condition of the human body: the abiotic environment, vector-transmitted diseases, and natural resources. Our concept relies on ecological principles embedded in a social context and identifies three sets of subsystems for study and management: human disease subsystems, natural resource subsystems, and decision-support subsystems. To control human diseases and to secure food from resource subsystems including livestock or crops, integrated preventive approaches are preferred over exclusively curative and sectorial approaches. Environmental sustainability - the basis for managing matter and water flows - contributes to a healthy human environment and constitutes the basis for social sustainability. For planning and implementation of the human health improvement scheme, participatory decision-support subsystems adapted to the local conditions need to be designed through institutional arrangements. The applicability of this scheme is demonstrated in urban and rural Ethiopia.
