Good information is needed for One Health success

Photo: Yeti Studio/Adobe Stock

The global COVID-19 pandemic brought forth a number of ideas and innovations for pharmaceuticals that could potentially help human patients manage the virus. Among the drugs that caught the public’s attention was ivermectin, a parasiticide commonly used in veterinary medicine that is not authorized or approved for use against COVID-19, in humans or animals.^1,2

One Health expert Catherine Bertrand-Ferrandis, DVM, founder of OLYLO in Paris, France; who has practiced in equine medicine, noted her surprise in 2021 that there was public demand for access to the drug. She said interest in ivermectin as a COVID-19 therapy grew when misinformation and misinterpretation of information was spread, oftentimes through social media and public speakers.¹

Infodemic case study

Although the FDA has acknowledged public interest in ivermectin for treating COVID-19, it has publicly stated safety concerns with unauthorized and unapproved uses for the drug. According to the agency, there is no clinical data that supports the use of ivermectin for protection against COVID-19 nor has the FDA determined the drug to be safe for this use in humans and animals.²

“How do we go from having a dewormer that was mainly for veterinary use to a miracle cure for COVID-19,” Bertrand-Ferrandis asked, during a presentation at the 2024 World AMR (antimicrobial resistance) Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.¹ “How did this happen?”

Bertrand-Ferrandis said the “ivermectin effect” is an example of a One Health infodemic. An infodemic, she explained, is an “overabundance of information” that accompanies a health event such as an outbreak or epidemic. This information may or may not be accurate and can be found and shared in digital and physical formats.^1,3

In the case of ivermectin, Bertrand-Ferrandis noted, the demand for the drug led to consequences for human and animal health as well as an economic impact on agriculture. “You had an out of stock situation for the veterinary use…And the fact that some people get sick because of it, and also an impact on animal health and welfare.,” she said. “It was a very unsuccessful One Health story.”

How is an infodemic avoided or mitigated? Bertrand-Ferrandis shared with World AMR Congress attendees how an infodemic is created and ways to negate false information from continuing to spread.

Combating false information

An infodemic is created with information voids, questions, concerns, misinformation, and disinformation, Bertrand-Ferrandis said, and everyone is susceptible. This phenomenon can lead to increased morbidity and mortality, misunderstanding of behaviors that patients need to adopt, stigma, undermining social cohesion, and mistrust in government, science, public health officials, and preventive therapies.¹

Communication is key to reducing the risk of an infodemic and the spread of misinformation. According to Bertrand-Ferrandis, all of the different industries and agencies associated with One Health, including those in human and animal health care, need to disseminate information more directly and efficiently to the others and foster a multidisciplinary communication network that leads to public knowledge.¹

Deepening the understanding of health information requires policy, commercial determinants, quality of information, equity of information, and health literacy, noted Bertrand-Ferrandis. Additionally, an understanding of how the different One Health sectors seek information, where they look for it, how these information environments are linked together, and how they can be leveraged in is a crisis. “It's something that is really an area of research and work that is, for the moment, quite nascent and needs to be developed,” she added.

Managing an infodemic also requires social listening and building trust by understanding the public’s questions, concerns, and information voids.¹ “Understanding what the questions of the people are, what they are looking for in terms of information and in terms of services will help you to better answer to their needs and their pain points very quickly and will help you to cut the roots of misinformation and disinformation,” Bertrand-Ferrandis said.

She concluded by emphasizing the need for health experts to invest in public trust. “If we do not address pain points… [the public] will look for solutions somewhere else,” she said.

References

1. Bertrand-Ferrandis C. How can we protect antimicrobials from infodemic impacts? A One Health perspective on the information environment. Presented at: World AMR Congress; September 5-6, 2024. Philadelphia, PA.
2. Ivermectin and COVID-19. FDA. April 5, 2024. Accessed September 5, 2024. https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/ivermectin-and-covid-19
3. Briand S, Hess S, Nguyen T, Purnat TD. Infodemic management in the twenty-first century. 2023;1-16. Springer.