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What is One Health?
Definition developed 2021 by the One Health High Level Expert Panel made up of the FAO, WHO, WOAH, and UNEP:
One Health is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems. It recognizes the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment (including ecosystems) are closely linked and inter-dependent.
The approach mobilizes multiple sectors, disciplines and communities at varying levels of society to work together to foster well-being and tackle threats to health and ecosystems, while addressing the collective need for clean water, energy and air, safe and nutritious food, taking action on climate changes and contributing to sustainable development.
One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP), Adisasmito WB, A...8(6): e1010537. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1010537
US CDC and One Health Commission (OHC) definition
One Health is a collaborative, multisectoral, and trans-disciplinary approach - working at local, regional, national, and global levels - to achieve optimal health (and well-being) outcomes recognizing the interconnections between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.
How one Health is cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary
To effectively address the intricate interactions between environmental, animal, and human health, the One Health approach is based on several fundamental principles. Some of One Health's fundamental ideas include.
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Interdisciplinary collaboration | This involves bringing together experts from a variety of disciplines, including human medicine, veterinary medicine, environmental science, public health, and social sciences. One Health combines the expertise of these disciplines to develop comprehensive strategies for health challenges that are too complex to be addressed by any single discipline.
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System thinking | It highlights how important it is to comprehend how the health systems of people, animals, and the environment are dynamic and interconnected. Understanding that modifications to one system component can have significant effects on other components is a key component of system thinking. Finding the underlying causes of health problems and creating interventions that deal with these factors rather than just their symptoms require a holistic viewpoint. Combine information from various fields, link to an imageincluding ecology, sociology, environmental science, veterinary medicine, and medicine. This partnership aids in comprehending the wider ramifications of medical conditions (Yasobant et al., 2020).
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Prevention and surveillance | Health threats can become a major problem if not addressed through proactive measures such as disease surveillance and early detection. In this way, the health of human populations and animals and the environment, the health of domestic animals and wildlife, zoonotic diseases that can be transmitted to humans, and environmental factors that affect health, such as water quality, air quality, and the presence of disease vectors such as mosquitoes, are monitored. Early detection can allow for timely interventions, reducing the risk of disease transmission from animals to humans and vice versa. Scientists can monitor wildlife health to identify potential threats to zoonotic disease before they enter human populations (Panel et al., 2023).
Six guiding steps for One Health:
- Develop & design the system surveillance scope
- Identify data requirements
- Develop whole-system design
- Develop system policy
- Strategic collaboration & integrated protocol
- Collective integration roadmap
4. Sustainability | This is another essential One Health tenet. Sustainable practices support both human and animal health by ensuring the long-term health of ecosystems. This entails encouraging biodiversity, cutting pollution, and practicing responsible resource management. For instance, sustainable agriculture uses methods that preserve soil health and minimize the use of dangerous chemicals, safeguarding the environment and public health. Sustainability in the One Health framework refers to the development of robust systems that can endure and adjust to health issues over time, rather than merely protecting the environment (Barrett et al., 2011).
Scope of One Health
- Zoonotic Diseases that pass between animals and humans
- Antimicrobial Resistance - a quintessential One Health issue
- Biodiversity / Natural Resources Conservation
- Bio surveillance for Disease prevention and response
- Changing Climate
- Comparative Biology / Translational Research / Diseases common to both animals and people, cancer, diabetes, obesity
- Animals as Sentinels
- Agricultural production and land use
- Convergence of human, animal, and plant health and the health of the environment
- Disaster preparedness and response
- Economics / Complex Systems, Civil Society
- Environmental Health / contamination detection and response
- Food and Water Safety and Security
- Global trade and commerce
- Human-animal bond
- Interprofessional relationships / sharing of knowledge (clinical and basic)
- Non- Communicable / Chronic Diseases
- Plant and Soil health
- Planetary Health
- Professional education and training
- Public policy and regulation
- Vector-borne Disease Prevention and Treatment
- Welfare / Well-being of animals, humans, planet
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