The involvement and “ownership” of local communities, that are the ultimate beneficiaries of interventions, whether treatments are addressed to humans or animals or the environment, should indeed be mandatory for all One Health interventions, dealing with all types of conditions, not only parasitic ones. Only a deep understanding of communities’ practices and customs can allow for the conception of potentially effective initiatives, which should be co-designed with recipient communities. For example, in the early 2010s, conversations with cattle keepers from northern Uganda , reporting of being not rarely bitten by “colourful” ornate ticks led to documenting for the first time in the country the occurrence of the zoonotic pathogen R. africae, causative agent of African Tick-Bite Fever , a condition often misdiagnosed with malaria- or flu-like syndromes . Such finding highlighted the risk of exposure to ATBF of rural communities in northern Uganda, underpinning the importance of raising awareness on this rickettsiosis, particularly among persons handling cattle as well as among physicians practicing in these areas, and those who care for returning travellers.

It is thanks to farmers’ viewpoints that this investigation could be started, and such a public health risk could be unveiled.The multisectoral nature of the approach here recommended entails the participation in One Health initiatives of all stakeholders potentially concerned, including civil society, academia, industry, institutions and their policy-makers. Academic parasitologists should therefore strive for engaging with civil society any time the investigations that they conduct may have possible repercussions on the latter. With data in hand, parasitologists as other scientists in the field of One Health, should engage in societal debate and rendertheir research rationales, methodologies, findings and recommendations intelligible not only to the general public, but also to administrators. To some extent, the COVID- 19 pandemic has shown that concepts such as antigenic or serological testing or even that of One Health itself, can become more widely accessible than they used to be beforehand, out of necessity. At the same time, academics and industry actors should proactively seek to collaborate with each other. The contribution of the private sector is indeed essential in the fight against parasitic and vector-borne infections, as it allows to deliver “ready to use” solutions such as drugs, vaccines, insecticides and diagnostic tools.

At the same time, serendipities happening in laboratories at universities and research institutes can lead to breakthrough discoveries that could be ultimately turned into “actual products”, responding to unmet needs on the ground, through win-win partnerships with the private sector. With multiple programmes being often conducted concurrently in neighbouring, if not overlapping, geographic areas, addressing either the same or different diseases, there is a need for harmonised actions. These would be possible through the establishment of a steady dialogue among key actors of projects’ cycles, including programmers and formulators , implementers and monitoring and evaluation teams. Creating, whenever possible, synergies between incoming projects and previous and/or concomitant initiatives can allow to optimise results and minimise possible redundancies and “stakeholder fatigue”, for the sake of the common good. With global health gaining presumably increasingly more political attention in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic , prioritising interventions based on burden of diseases is undoubtedly an important instrument for agenda setting. In this view, the availability of reliable data, generated through robust methodologies and thorough analyses, is essential. Finally, for it to be “ever topical” and effective, the One Health approach should also be forward-looking, and rely on institutional policies fostering research and innovation, both at public and private level, and continuing education and training in parasitology and entomology.

Only through constant R&D efforts, entailing collaborations among academia, industry and PDPs, it can be hoped that more parasitic and arthropod-borne conditions of humans and animals or both, NTDs included, could be effectively controlled in the future. Fostering research and innovation as well as manufacturing capacity locally in Africa, not only could prove logistically practical and ultimately cost-effective, considering these efforts are addressed to endemic conditions of the continent, but can also provide the African burgeoning youth with major employment opportunities. The know-how built by the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, only centre in Africa able to produce a yellow fever vaccine and soon to produce vaccines against COVID-19 , as well as the institution of the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda and the One Health Research, Education and Outreach Centre in Africa in Kenya and the Africa One Health University Network  are just some encouraging examples in this respect, among other ongoing initiatives.