Mobilising community-based research on zoonotic infections: A case study of longitudinal cohorts in Vietnam

Abstract

We initiated the Vietnam Initiative on Zoonotic Infections (VIZIONS) research program to better understand the epidemiology of disease transmission at the human–animal interface in Vietnamese rural communities and to integrate One Health approaches to disease surveillance. We established a longitudinal community cohort study of individuals with occupational exposure to animals, which involves concurrent targeted sampling from domestic livestock species and follow-up monitoring of human clinical cases. The project was implemented by government agencies at the provincial and district levels of the public health and animal health sectors in Vietnam. Engaging with rural communities builds response capacity at the grassroots level, and has improved dialogue between local stakeholders responsible for monitoring human and animal health. Here we describe the process of initiating participatory research and cohort field implementation over the first year in two study sites in Vietnam.Keywords: Vietnam, participatory research, zoonoses, field epidemiology

Sample descriptors linked to metagenomic sequencing data from human and animal enteric samples from Vietnam

“…This study took place in Dong Thap Province between March 2013 and May 2016. The study design, methods and baseline characteristics of the cohort are described in detail elsewhere 11,12 . Four categories of subjects with residential or occupational exposure to animals were recruited into the cohort:Animal farmers and their relatives, representing people with typical residential exposures to a variety of livestock species.…”