Preventing the Next Pandemic through a Planetary Health Approach: A Focus on Key Drivers of Zoonosis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

A thought provoking paper on the holistic approach of epidemics.  The socioeconomic causes, an important part of the holistic approach are missing though. Poverty and hunger are driving populations to hunt for food in the virgin woods enhancing the possibilities of zoonoses transmission.  A paragraph dealing with the socioeconomic causes of the causes will be needed for the cpmpletness of the paper.

In line 105-106 the general reference to mortality is possibly misleading. Suggestion to replace with : causing case fatality rates from 47% to 90% in men

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for taking the time to review our manuscript, your insightful suggestions and comments have, indeed, strengthen our manuscript. Here below, is how we have addressed your comments and suggestions point-by-point.

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Comment:

A thought-provoking paper on the holistic approach of epidemics.  The socioeconomic causes, an important part of the holistic approach is missing though. Poverty and hunger are driving populations to hunt for food in the virgin woods enhancing the possibilities of zoonoses transmission.  A paragraph dealing with the socioeconomic causes of the causes will be needed for the completeness of the paper.

Response:

This has been addressed in lines 292-300.

Comment:

In line 105-106 the general reference to mortality is possibly misleading. Suggestion to replace with: causing case fatality rates from 47% to 90% in men.

Response:

This has been addressed in lines 113-114.

We hope that you are satisfied with how we have addressed your comments.

Sincerely,

Authors

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

General comments. 

Title: Preventing the next pandemics of Zoonotic origin through the Planetary Health Approach: A review of key drivers of Zoonosis.

Comments:

1.     The title is lumped up with several factors; where it is offering solutions of preventing future zoonotic pandemics using a planetary approach vis a vis It is a scoping review of the key drivers of zoonoses.

2.     The title is not concise.

3.     It should establish a territory and claim it.

Abstract

1.     In line 41 – 43, the author is speculating that future pandemics will be of zoonotic nature. This is farfetched and outrageous, the author ought to provide a leading scientific argument rather than speculations.

2.     The abstract fails to provide methodology used in literature review as outlined by PRISMA 2020 guidelines on abstract outline.

3.     Significant conclusion is missing in the abstract.

General comments

1.     The author fails to claim centrality of the review and establishing a niche through reviewing items of previous research and raising questions of continuing tradition.

2.     The overarching rationale of the review is missing.  

3.     Methodology on literature search, inclusion and exclusion criteria of available literature is missing.

4.     The author fails to provide guidelines on how information was synthesized and used to elucidate evidence to support the premise of preventing future zoonoses.

5.     Discussion on the implication of the results from the literature on global public health practice, policy, and future research.

6.     The review article should be directed towards inclusive of other public health strategies such a one health approach.

In conclusion, the author fails to put forward a convincing argument on prevention of future pandemics in respect to the key drivers identified.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for taking the time to review our manuscript, your insightful suggestions and comments have, indeed, strengthen our manuscript. Here below, is how we have addressed your comments and suggestions point-by-point.

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

General comments.

Title: Preventing the next pandemics of Zoonotic origin through the Planetary Health Approach: A review of key drivers of Zoonosis.

Comments:

1. The title is lumped up with several factors; where it is offering solutions of preventing future zoonotic pandemics using a planetary approach vis a vis It is a scoping review of the key drivers of zoonoses.
2. The title is not concise.
3. It should establish a territory and claim it.

Abstract

Comment:

1. In line 41 – 43, the author is speculating that future pandemics will be of zoonotic nature. This is farfetched and outrageous, the author ought to provide a leading scientific argument rather than speculations.
2. Title modification: Preventing the Next Pandemics through the Planetary Health Approach: A Focus on the Key Drivers of Zoonosis

Response:

Thank you for this wonderful suggestion. Based on this comment, the authors are not speculating that future pandemic will be zoonotic in origin as this has been reported in various scientific papers and the experts convened by the IPBES to investigate the cause and origin of the COVID-19 pandemic also reported that future pandemic will be zoonotic in origin. We cannot emphasize in detail as this statement appears in the abstract and it is not the goal of our paper to justify the origin of future pandemic.

Comment:

2. The abstract fails to provide methodology used in literature review as outlined by PRISMA 2020 guidelines on abstract outline.

Response:

Thank you for this comment. In the title and aim of our paper, we have identified that the research is a viewpoint article and neither a scoping review nor a systematic review that would require the adoption of PRISMA guideline in the methodology section.

Comment:

3. Significant conclusion is missing in the abstract.

Response:

This has been addressed in line 45-46 of the revised manuscript.

General comments

Comment:

1. The author fails to claim centrality of the review and establishing a niche through reviewing items of previous research and raising questions of continuing tradition.

Response:

Thank you for this comment. The aim of the paper is to establish why a planetary health is a panacea to the key drivers of zoonosis. The scientific evidence behind the key drivers of zoonosis in the paper has been highlighted. Consequently, we explained how planetary health is related to the drivers of zoonosis mentioned in our paper and we finally provide recommendations on how this approach can be adopted on these drivers.

Comment:

2. The overarching rationale of the review is missing.

Response:

We have improved the quality of the manuscript from abstract to conclusion.

Comment:

3. Methodology on literature search, inclusion and exclusion criteria of available literature is missing.

Response:

This is a viewpoint article and requires no methodology and selection criteria for article selections as opposed to the systematic review and scoping review.

Comment:

4. The author fails to provide guidelines on how information was synthesized and used to elucidate evidence to support the premise of preventing future zoonoses.

Response:

This is a viewpoint article.

Comment:

5. Discussion on the implication of the results from the literature on global public health practice, policy, and future research.

Response

This is a viewpoint article.

6. The review article should be directed towards inclusive of other public health strategies such a one health approach.

In conclusion, the author fails to put forward a convincing argument on prevention of future pandemics in respect to the key drivers identified.

Response:

The overall manuscript has been improved.

 

We hope that you are satisfied with how we have addressed your comments.

Sincerely,

Authors.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors

Zoonoses are a major global concern as new diseases emerge while others re-emerge. The need for a new approach to cope with these impactful events is urgent.

The article is well written and interesting. The topic is very topical and embedded in the theme of the journal.

Suggestions/corrections

The authors should start by referring to the concept of "Planetary Health approach in order to describe at the end of the paper.

 The authors should improve the review and differentiate the One Health paradigm from the planetary health approach.

 The authors should describe the Stockholm paradigm in the concept of planetary health.

The paper would be enriched by adding a Figure explaining the whole relationship, for exemple,  with the concept of the planetary health in the centre surrounded by the key drivers of zoonosis.

Author Response

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Authors

Zoonoses are a major global concern as new diseases emerge while others re-emerge. The need for a new approach to cope with these impactful events is urgent.

The article is well written and interesting. The topic is very topical and embedded in the theme of the journal.

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for taking the time to review our manuscript, your insightful suggestions and comments have, indeed, strengthen our manuscript. Here below, is how we have addressed your comments and suggestions point-by-point.

 

Suggestions/corrections

The authors should start by referring to the concept of "Planetary Health approach in order to describe at the end of the paper.

Response:

This has been addressed in lines 99-111 according to your suggestions.

 The authors should improve the review and differentiate the One Health paradigm from the planetary health approach.

Response:

The overall paper has been improved and the disparity between planetary health and other holistic concepts of health such as One Health and Eco Health have been highlighted in the line 335-348.

Comment:

 The authors should describe the Stockholm paradigm in the concept of planetary health.

This has been addressed in the lines 354-375.

Comment:

The paper would be enriched by adding a Figure explaining the whole relationship, for example, with the concept of the planetary health in the center surrounded by the key drivers of zoonosis.

Response:

This has been included in the revised manuscript.

 

We hope that you are satisfied with how we have addressed your comments.

 

Sincerely,

Authors

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx