A need for One Health approach lessons learned from outbreaks of Rift Valley fever in Saudi Arabia and Sudan

Abstract

The emerging Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a transboundary zoonotic disease, transmitted to animals and humans via mosquito bites, but also directly through exposure to blood, body fluids, or tissues of infected animals (1). It is caused by RVF virus (RVFV) belonging to the Bunyaviridae family, genus Phlebovirus, which is endemic in many African countries, and also since 2000 in the Arabian Peninsula where Saudi Arabia and Yemen have been affected (2, 3). The RVFV usually causes outbreaks after floods when the conditions are favorable for virus transmission via mosquitoes (4). There is great concern that the disease will continue to spread to new regions around the world, such as South-East Asia, Americas, and Europe with potentially devastating consequences (5 7). The increased animal trade and the possibility of vectors transported aerially as well as climate change could increase the risk for the disease to expand further (8 10).