Events

01 Oct 2019

Emerging diseases preparedness - a One Health approach

Globalisation, population growth, deforestation, climate change, and political and societal unrest all impact on infectious disease ecology, trigger spillovers of new human health threats from the animal world, and increase the potential for amplification of small scale incidents to outbreaks that are difficult to control.

The epidemics of SARS, MERS, Ebola, Zika, and others, have illustrated the fact that our research response to such emerging disease outbreaks usually fails to have a direct impact, due to its reactive nature. Preparedness research therefore is shifting from reactive to a pro-active forward looking research agenda.

Marion Koopman will present some of the key challenges and discuss the potential for evidence based prediction or early detection of outbreaks, using 21st century technologies. 

Professor Marion Koopmans, DVM PhD

Professor Marion Koopmans focuses on global population level impact of rapidly spreading zoonotic virus infections, with special emphasis on foodborne transmission. Her research focuses on unravelling the modes of transmission of viruses among animals and between animals and humans, and the use of pathogenic genomic information to unravel these pathways and to signal changes in transmission or disease impact.