The CARE project (Community Awareness and Response for Emerging zoonotic outbreaks)

CARE is a multidisciplinary and international research project that aims to develop and evaluate community-based approaches for preventing emerging zoonotic disease outbreaks through a One Health framework. Rather than focusing solely on outbreak response, CARE seeks to strengthen prevention by fostering closer collaboration between communities, human and animal health services, and public health authorities. The project brings together expertise in epidemiology, disease ecology, anthropology, economics, veterinary and human health to co-design locally adapted prevention and surveillance systems that can be integrated into existing community structures. By involving community members in identifying local risks, promoting prevention measures, and reporting health events, CARE aims to improve the uptake of prevention measures, strengthen early detection of outbreaks, and generate a better understanding of disease transmission while evaluating the costs and benefits of this approach. CARE evaluates this approach across four contrasting settings, including Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Zimbabwe and France, to examine how community-based prevention can be adapted to different ecological, cultural and socio-economic contexts. The project focuses on three priority zoonotic diseases with distinct transmission pathways, including avian influenza, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) and rabies, to identify common principles that can strengthen preparedness across a broad range of zoonotic diseases. By using harmonized protocols and evaluation frameworks across countries, CARE will generate the evidence needed to assess whether community-based One Health prevention systems can be effectively scaled-up and integrated into national strategies for preventing emerging zoonotic diseases. Project investigators: Katherine Worsley-Tonks (Institut Pasteur), Hervé Bourhy (IP), Tamara Giles-Vernick (IP), Samantha Joeck (IP), Simon Cauchemez (IP), Anne Conan (Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement, CIRAD), Hélène De Nys (CIRAD), Erwan Sachet (CIRAD), Florian Liégois (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, IRD), Mathurin Tejiokem (Centre Pasteur du Cameroun, CPC), Richard Njouom (CPC), Rodrigue Poueme (CPC), Antoine Socpa (University of Yaoundé I), Jean Marc Feussom (AU-IBAR), Edgar Valéry (Institut Pasteur de Côte d'Ivoire, IPCI), Meite Syndou (ICPI), Isaac Tiembre (Institut National d'Hygiène Publique de Côte d'Ivoire), Vessaly Kallo (Directory of Veterinary Services (DVS) of Côte d'Ivoire), Kathrin Heitz-Tokpa (Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques), Gift Matope (University of Zimbabwe), Vupenyu Dzingirai (University of Zimbabwe), Joconiah Chirenda (University of Zimbabwe), Lambert Gwenhure (DVS of Zimbabwe), Nicholas Midzi (Ministry of Health of Zimbabwe).