The association between hospitalization for a febrile illness and animal exposure at the human-animal interface in Dong Nai, Vietnam, July 2017 – September 2018: a case-control study

Abstract

Wildlife farms are important interfaces where zoonoses can occur due to frequent and direct contact which farmers have with their animals. We hypothesized that raising wildlife species adversely affected animal farmers’ health because of the increased risk of contracting zoonotic disease, and that wearing PPE would reduce the likelihood of that outcome. To test our hypothesis, we used data collected by the Wildlife Conservation Society in Dong Nai, Vietnam, as part of the PREDICT 2 project, to conduct a case-control study. The outcome we studied was hospitalization for a febrile illness of unknown origin; we hypothesized that this febrile illness could be a zoonotic infection. We investigated the potential exposures related to raising wild taxa as a whole, exposures from individual taxa, and the use of personal protective equipment.