ABSTRACT
This chapter examines science-policy processes for Lassa fever, a rodent-borne viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) in West Africa, and explores some unique practicalities and politics of zoonotic disease control. In 2014, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa once again brought zoonotic diseases to the forefront of the international community's attention. The surprise and horror that the Ebola epidemic provoked, including in Sierra Leone, was a reminder of the value of One Health, but also of considerable unmet challenges in realizing it. In securitization debates, biosecurity priorities are often portrayed as being in opposition to those of public health. Public health efforts and investments in biosecurity have improved the management of Lassa fever but not in ways that have translated into sustained and wide-ranging health systems strengthening, or in improved understandings of the interactions between human and animal health needed for effective disease management.
