RSTMH George Macdonald Medal Lecture: Professor Sarah Cleaveland

One Health interventions: recognising interconnections, addressing inequalities

In this webinar, Professor Sarah Cleaveland delivered her George Macdonald Medal speech on the topic "One Health interventions: recognising interconnections, addressing inequalities."

Professor Cleaveland discussed the value of One Health approaches in understanding the interactions between human, animal, and environmental health. She highlighted both the opportunities and challenges of implementing One Health interventions. Drawing on case studies from research in East Africa, she illustrated how these interventions have the potential to deliver major health and development benefits, while also exploring barriers to implementation and raising critical questions about how the full potential of One Health might be realised.

Professor Sarah Cleaveland (BSc VetMB PhD MRCVS FRSE FRS) is a veterinary epidemiologist based at the University of Glasgow, UK. She leads an interdisciplinary One Health research programme in East Africa. Her PhD and postdoctoral research focused on rabies, exploring reservoir dynamics, disease burden, and control measures. This work contributed to global strategies for canine rabies elimination. While she remained engaged in rabies research and policy, her more recent work in Tanzania addressed a broader range of neglected diseases affecting human and animal health, livelihoods, and wildlife conservation.

Professor Cleaveland was a founding director of the Alliance for Rabies Control. She was awarded an OBE in 2014 for services to veterinary epidemiology and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016.

The George Macdonald Medal recognises outstanding contributions to tropical hygiene.

I am thrilled and honoured to have been awarded the George Macdonald Medal with Professor Alex Ezeh. This award is a recognition of the importance of partnerships in tackling challenging disease problems.

Professor Sarah Cleaveland