Page 11 - Eclipse - RVC Alumni Magazine - Autumn 2020

ONE HEALTH
RVC to contribute to global effort on COVID-19 research
An RVC-led project, which
seeks to reduce COVID-19 transmission in traditional food markets in Bolivia and Peru, has recently been awarded £749,735 from the National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation Global Effort on COVID-19 Health Research call.
Through this project, researchers will co-design bespoke plans to reduce transmission of the virus in Sacaba, Bolivia and Huancayo, Peru, and will also share their experience and online resources
to help facilitate similar efforts in other countries. Contributing researchers are from the RVC, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and Universidad Mayor de San Simon.
The chosen localities were identified as priority targets given the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 and their ranking amongst the highest countries in the
Market in Sacaba, Bolivia
world for deaths. Further, while traditional food markets are a ‘hotbed’ for the spread of COVID-19, they also play important economic and socio-cultural roles in most low and middle-income countries. Therefore, risk mitigation strategies must be equitable, culturally sensitive and sustainable.
Working in collaboration with local health services, the team, led by Javier Guitian, RVC Professor of Veterinary Public Health, will pilot a health promotion plan for market sellers and their families that includes early detection and follow-up of infections. Data gathered from these high-risk populations in the follow-up phase will provide
insights into pending questions regarding COVID-19, such as reinfection risk.
While in its early stages, it is anticipated that this project will help introduce effective risk mitigation programmes that also respect the role of traditional markets, which, in the current pandemic, have been stigmatised. By developing
local capacity to protect populations with a high infection risk, this project will play an important role in the COVID-19 response, while helping inform strategies to tackle future public health emergencies.
Professor Guitian said: “Bolivia and Peru have been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The more vulnerable sectors of the society have been affected,
not only by the pandemic itself, but also by control measures such as school closures, strict lockdowns and collapse of health care services, which disproportionately affected those with fewer resources who largely rely on the informal economy and lack a safety net.
“In this project, scientists will work together with market sellers to identify ways of mitigating COVID-19 transmission that
are not only effective but also sensitive
to their needs and values and to the critical economic and sociocultural role of traditional food markets.”
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