By: Ashton Davis
Dr. Dacso began his journey into Global Health and international work during his first-year of medical school while at UTMB. He went with a UTMB student group down to the Rio Grand Valley in Texas to visit a border community and left with a feeling that working
to improve the health of populations in resource limited settings was where he wanted to be. Since that time he earned a masters degree in International Development Studies from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies, completed
an internal medicine residency, lived in Botswana to do global health work, then moved back to UTMB, where he has since established multiple collaborations around the globe in the Dominican Republic, Peru, Eastern and Southern Africa.
Stepping into the One Health approach, Dacso credits Dr. Dennis Bente for helping him understand its relevance
to the medical field. He states that, “I really didn’t know much about it. In the early naïve stage of my global health career, I kind of thought that One Health was more of a veterinary medicine and public health area and didn’t
fully understand its relevance to the medical profession.” However, as he began working with emerging infectious diseases in collaboration with his partners around the globe it became clear that it takes, “no time to come to a non-human
species that is involved in the train of transmission of the pathogen or the genesis of the pathogen.” During our discussion Dr. Dacso expressed the fact that most students do not learn about One Health during medical school. As a first-year
medical student I echo this sentiment after surveying some of my classmates' understanding of One Health. Beginning to build a knowledge of interconnectedness enriches our learning experience and helps build the skill of systems thinking.
A current One Health project led by Dr. Dacso’s team focused on undifferentiated febrile syndromes associated with vector borne diseases in the Dominican Republic. Under this project, a molecular lab was built from the ground up in the Dominican
Republic to undertake research on emerging infectious diseases and to provide opportunities for student exchanges to undertake training in the Dominican Republic and at UTMB. It is now at a point where samples are coming in, molecular diagnostics
are underway as the team seeks to understand vector borne diseases in the country. What Dr. Dacso is most proud of is how the project incorporates human, vector, and environmental sampling as well as having local infrastructure to sustain and manage
the project. Outside of this project he lauded the efforts of his colleagues who have ongoing work in Peru, East Africa, West Africa and other parts of South America.
We closed our time together discussing how the pandemic we are living through right now is a One Health issue right before our eyes. A virus spillover from a non-human vector through an environmental situation that affects us as humans globally and can
have significant consequences for humanity. Having spent nearly two years providing care in the COVID wards, Dr. Dacso has seen the impact of the disease first-hand. Something he mentioned early in our interview is an insightful quote, “Even
as open-minded as you think you are there is a whole heck of a lot you have to learn, including the environment and other species.” It is important to humble ourselves and learn from the experiences of other countries and communities around
the world. One Health is all about opening your mind and learning from others. Let us each continue to take this time to learn.