How can bringing healthcare to local villagers in Uganda help save the Critically Endangered mountain gorilla? The answer lies in our genetics, says Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, wildlife veterinarian and director of Conservation through Public Health (CTPH).
"Because we share 98.4% genetic material with gorillas we can easily transmit diseases to each other." Therefore, explains Kalema-Zikusoka "our efforts to protect the gorillas will always be undermined by the poor public health of the people who they share a habitat with. In order to effectively improve the health of the gorillas we needed to also improve the health of the people, which will not only directly reduced the health threat to gorillas through improvement of public health practices, but also improved community attitudes toward wildlife conservation."
This is CTPH's mission in a nut shell: save wildlife by improving local human health and hygiene. It's a win-win concept that so far has been ignored by major conservation organizations.
Kalema-Zikusoka at Hard edge between the forest.
It was an outbreak of scabies skin disease outbreak among the mountain gorillas, which killed an infant gorilla and sickened the whole group, that led Kalema-Zikusoka to establish CTPH. When the disease was eventually linked to the neighbouring human villages, Kalema-Zikusoka saw a way to both help gorillas and people. Now CTPH provides health services and education in hygene to local people while monitoring gorilla health.
"Park staff collect fecal samples from gorillas every week and when they range outside the park," Kalema-Zikusoka says. "Results from the fecal analysis are shared with the livestock and human health sectors to be able to better detect disease transmission at the human/wildlife/livestock interface."
Yet since its inception, CTPH has moved far beyond monitoring health of both groups for possible disease. They have worked long and hard to give the local people a better life, including education and economic opportunities. CTPH has begun a program to encourage family planning (Uganda has one of the world's highest population growth rates); they have built a telecentre so locals can have access to the Internet and therefore the wider world; they have begun computer courses at the center; and the organization has promoted ecotourism in the area as an alternative to poaching.
CTPH's successes have not always been easy. Kalema-Zikusoka says that one of the difficult tasks has been receiving funding for an organization that straddles the line between public health and conservation.
"Sometimes when we go to human health donors they say that we are animal people or when we ask conservation donors for funds to support community public health they say that this is public health not conservation," she says.
Examining gorilla fecal sample. Photo courtesy of CTPH.
Yet CTPH has largely overcome this confusion. "We have made great progress in explaining this approach and received support from donors who see CTPH as a cutting edge approach to promoting wildlife conservation and integrated conservation and development initiatives (ICDs)."
It is clear that CTPH is beginning to be recognized for its innovative and effective approach: Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka won the Whitley Gold Award for grassroots nature conservation, i.e. the 'Green Oscars', this year.
In a September interview with mongabay.com, Kalema-Zikusoka spoke about winning the Whitley, combining public health and conservation, and the importance to conservation of providing education and technology to local communities.
Kalema-Zikusoka will be presenting at the upcoming Wildlife Conservation Network Expo in San Francisco on October 3rd.
INTERVIEW WITH DR. GLADYS KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA
Mongabay: What is your background?
Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka: I am a wildlife veterinarian with public health field research experience in and around protected areas in Africa. I started my career with wildlife, when reviving a wildlife club, the Kibuli Secondary School Wildlife Club, at high school in Uganda in 1988, which focused on conservation education and had not been functioning for many years. This experience made me want to become a vet who works with wildlife. In 1996 I became the first veterinarian in the Uganda Wildlife Authority, and set up the veterinary department. During this time I led a team that investigated the first scabies skin disease outbreak in mountain gorillas traced to people living around the park. This was another turning point in my life where I felt that I also needed to improve the public health status of communities bordering protected areas who are important stewards of wildlife.
Mongabay: Most people wouldn’t necessarily link public health concerns with conservation. What is the connection? 
Infant mountain gorilla dead from scabies. Photo courtesy of CTPH.
Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka: I got involved in public health when investigating a scabies skin disease outbreak in mountain gorillas of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, which resulted in the death of an infant and sickness in the rest of the group that only recovered with Ivermectin anti-parasitic treatment. The outbreak was eventually traced to people living around the park who have inadequate health care, hygiene practices, and information on diseases that can spread between animals and people (zoonoses). Because we share 98.4% genetic material with gorillas we can easily transmit diseases to each other. This made me realise that our efforts to protect the gorillas will always be undermined by the poor public health of the people who they share a habitat with. In order to effectively improve the health of the gorillas we needed to also improve the health of the people, which will not only directly reduced the health threat to gorillas through improvement of public health practices, but also improved community attitudes toward wildlife conservation. In particular the communities around Bwindi and other great ape protected areas—where there is ecotourism—benefit directly from having healthy gorillas. When we conducted health education workshops on the risks of human and gorilla disease transmission, we found that the communities that were benefiting from tourism through job creation, revenue sharing and small businesses, were very willing to listen to what we had to say, because they saw that if they are healthy and hygienic this will contribute to sustaining the gorilla populations, and a source of income from gorilla ecotourism.
Mongabay: How has your training as a vet impacted your work with your organization Conservation through Public Health (CTPH)? 
Signs of mountain gorillas: banana crop destroyed by the mountain gorilla. Photo courtesy of CTPH.
Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka: My training as a vet has impacted my work at CTPH, where the programs are designed around a background of veterinary medicine and conservation medicine. We have three integrated programs: wildlife health monitoring, human public health and information, education and communication. In the wildlife health monitoring program I have the opportunity to implement what I was not able to as UWA vet where my main job was to attend to emergencies with sick wildlife and disease outbreak, and did not leave me enough time to set up long term systems to monitor health of the wildlife and establish an early warning system for disease outbreaks. My veterinary training has enabled CTPH to set up a disease monitoring and surveillance system where park staff collect fecal samples from gorillas every week and when they range outside the park. Results from the fecal analysis are shared with the livestock and human health sectors to be able to better detect disease transmission at the human/wildlife/livestock interface. My veterinary training also enables us to carry out wildlife interventions, such as immobilizations and post-mortems when the need arises.
Mongabay: The public is aware of many examples of diseases passing from humans, but what are some examples of diseases passing from humans to animals, such as gorillas?
Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka: Examples of diseases passing from humans to great apes are scabies passing from local community members to gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and respiratory viruses passing from researchers to chimpanzees in the Tai Forest in Ivory Coast.
Mongabay: Much of your work has been with gorillas (and the people living near them)—have you also worked with other species? 
Health sign posts from CTPH. Photo courtesy of CTPH.
Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka: I have also worked with other species, particularly when I was the veterinary officer for Uganda Wildlife Authority dealing with animal emergencies, disease outbreaks, translocations and reintroductions and problem animals. The mandate of CTPH involves us working with all the wildlife, and currently we are setting up a savannah ecosystem model in Queen Elizabeth National Park based on the forest ecosystem model in Bwindi, where we are dealing with issues of disease transmission between wildlife and livestock. We work with chimpanzees in the forest ecosystem, and other species in the savannah ecosystem, including buffalo, Uganda kob and warthogs to see if they are sharing diseases, such as Tuberculosis (TB), brucellosis, foot and mouth disease, anthrax and African Swine Fever with cattle, goats and pigs.
Mongabay: How important is tourism—such as visitors coming to see the gorillas—to the communities you work with?
Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka: Tourism is very important for the communities because it provides a sustainable source of income from gorilla ecotourism that helps to prevent the communities from going into the park to poach and collect firewood.
Mongabay.com is an environmental science and conservation news website.
