Message from the Founder
I have now more interest on respiratory disease began when we noticed the increasing number of respiratory illness not just on mountain gorilla abut also on the community around the park. In 2009, eleven of the dozen mountain gorilla started to exhibit severe respiratory problems. I noticed the occurrence of the outbreak and informed the leadership and park management team. One adult female and her 4-year-old son went missing from the group. I found then the mother lying down dead, face down on the ground, her 4-year-old boy sat beside her’’ vocalizing, calling other gorillas’’, I help treat the young male gorilla with antibiotic; Ceftriaxone, return him in the close his group, and brought the mother’s body back to the lab for necropsy. We then send samples in USA lab and we discover that death was link to the presence of the Human metapneumovirus.
What make me happy is not just I treat and keep alive the young baby who cannot survive out of his originate group but because his is now leading the Hirwa gorilla group in Rwanda I the decide to contribute on different studies and research projects with relevant publications.
With the One Health Approach for Conservation – Gorilla Health, I introduced the simple wonders of touch, smell and feeling nature to their workshop sessions. Plans are in hand to increase our support so that such important eco-awareness about ‘’Conservation and One Health’’ can be extended and, hopefully, pave the way to create new Young Conservationists in Africa who we have helped to get first-hand experience of conservation projects through our One health programs since 2015.
Actually, the main threat for the mountain gorilla health are infectious diseases ranging from respiratory illnesses to intestinal parasitic infections as we identified for the last decade. This lead to my research on respiratory illness even I identified as well other health issues like the trauma, infanticide, dental illness… Humans and gorillas share approximately 98 percent of their DNA. This close genetic relatedness has led to concerns that gorillas may be susceptible to many of the infectious diseases that affect people. We identify different human virus affecting mountain gorilla confirming cross- contamination diseases between human and mountain gorilla with led to different publications (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jean-Felix-Kinani-Sangwa)
We published a paper on implementing One Health as an integrated approach to health in Rwanda (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5335763/). OHAC – Gorilla Health will successful support the Rwanda’s One Health approach program and it will result in speedier achievement of meaningful health outcomes with more innovative solutions to pressing health problems, and will serve as a model for other countries that may benefit from incorporating One Health principles into their national strategic environmental, livestock and human health.
Through the (OHAC) – Gorilla Health support, our Veterinary interventions account for up to 60 per cent of the difference in growth rates between habituated versus unhabituated gorillas: with the remaining difference likely arising from greater protection against poachers. Our team various countries in East and Central Africa advising others on setting up programs similar to the ones he devised in the Virunga massif. OHAC- Gorilla health experts travel to various universities in the Great Lakes Region and train the next generation of conservation scientists.
We will contribute to develop and improve measures to control and/or eradicate livestock and wildlife animal diseases in Africa. Ensuring planning and implementation of conservation policy control measures and eradication procedures for outbreak of infectious. And Ensure the survival in One Health ecosystem of human, livestock and the wildlife including the mountain and lowland gorilla.
Dr. Jean Felix Kinani Sangwa
