Human health improvement in Sub-Saharan Africa through integrated management of arthropod transmitted diseases and natural resources.
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.
Baumgärtner
J
J
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya.
Bieri
M
M
Buffoni
G
G
Gilioli
G
G
Gopalan
H
H
Greiling
J
J
Tikubet
G
G
Van Schayk
I
I
D017954:Africa South of the Sahara; D000383:Agriculture; D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001179:Arthropod Vectors; D002417:Cattle; D003140:Communicable Disease Control; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D003657:Decision Making; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D012423:Rural Health; D014504:Urban Health