One Health-Need of the Hour
BY FIELD VET
What is one Health?
One Health is the cooperative approach at local,regional, state and national level by Human health professionals and Veterinary health professionals, along with Agriculture professionals, Environment professionals and Administrative Professionals to safeguard the optimal health of Humans,Animals, plants and maintain the natural ecosystem in which they live.
What is the need for One Health?
Medical professionals handling the exclusive human health issues arising mostly due to natural changes in Ecosystem like seasonal changes,whether changes and changes in food, water,air and environment.
Veterinary professionals are handing exclusive health issues of Animals and Birds which are arising due to same changes human being encountered.Plants one of major source of food for humans,Animals and birds also encountered diseases conditions mostly due to pest and mineral deficiencies in soil and non availability of quality water.All these issues addressed by Agriculture Professionals.
Environmental Professionals study the weather changes,climate changes and seasonal changes and its impact on the ecosystems, Humans,Animals and Plants.
Administrative professionals handling the proper food supply, water supply,Public health issues,create common regulation to follow in public places and law and order.
Each professionals individually handled more than 100s of issues and most of these issues were of common origin, mostly arising out of exploitation of natural habitat, food,water and Air.
By cooperative and team approach of One heath medical and veterinary professionals, along with Agriculture, Environmental professionals, Administrative professionals,prevent their 100s of individual issues and can able to create best Ecosystems and best healthy Humans,Animals and plants.
Benefits of One Health Approach:
#One Health Able to prevent majority of the zoonotic diseases.
# It Able to prevent most of the water borne diseases and food borne diseases of humans and animals.
#It Able to prevent Diseases of animals and birds due to air pollution.
#One health regulate the Judicial use of pesticides and fertilizer in plants prevent the diseases arising out of excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers
# It Able to prevent Antimicrobial resistance
#One Health regulate the Judicial use of medicines in humans and Animals
#It Reduce the countries expenses on import of medicines, fertilizers and pesticides.
#It Able to prevent future pandemic like Covid-19 and monkey pox.
#One Health able to create sustainable natural living conditions for next generations.
Rabies and One Health:
Rabies is one of the important zoonotic disease of humans.Every year more than 59000 people died due to Rabies in the world.This disease caused deaths more than natural disasters every year.
Cooperative and team approach of Veterinary Doctors and human doctors along with administrators are the best way to Eradicate Rabies disease in humans as well as Animals.
Vaccination of all pet dogs and cats community dogs and cats annually is the best way prevent and Eradicate Rabies.90 percent human Rabies cases due to dog bite.100 percent Rabies Vaccination for all dogs in each city, town and villages reduce the Rabies incident by 90 percent.
Cooperative approach of Human Doctor, veterinary doctor and village administrative officer at village level to identified the high dog bite incident locality and Vaccination of all dogs and cats in that particular area and isolation of suspected dogs with Rabies like symptoms reduce the Rabies incidence 95 percent.
Regarding human dog bite cases,complete investigation of dog bite incidence,
And proper post bite preventive Vaccination and treatment programme for persons suffered from dog bite,collection of Vaccination details of all dogs of the dog bite incidence places and follow up action by local administration officials of the area to prevent future incidence of dog bite.
By this type of cooperative and team approach of One Health, Rabies will be Eradicate from world by 2030.
Covid19 and One Health:
Covid 19 pandemic emphasis the importance of one Health approach.
When it originated in wuhan city of china, if Doctors who attended the initial cases,if discussed with symptoms with veterinary Doctors of the area and local administrative officers which resulted in isolation of intial patients with biosecurity measures,and world never faced the closer of International borders,millions of human death,Economic catastrophic effects.
Covid-19 clear indicated the necessity of one Health approach at local,regional,national and international level.
If the wahun city authorities discuss the increased incidence of new human disease conditions with city veterinary professionals city Health professionals
Covid-19 stopped at wuhan city limit itself.If the china Health officials informed and discussed about the new incidences and deaths with veterinary professionals and environmental professionals Covid-19 incidence stopped at china Country level and it never became a pandemic situation of the world.
Cooperative and team approach of different field of professionals as one Health was lacking at that time lead to Covid-19 pandemic. Now one Health become the need of the Hour to prevent emerging pandemic like monkey pox and Rabies.
Bird flu and One Health:
Bird flu/H5N1 was first isolated from a goose in China in 1996. Human infections were first reported in 1997 in Hong Kong.Since 2003, more than 700 human cases of Asian HPAI H5N1 have been reported to the WHO, primarily from 15 countries in Asia, Africa, the Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East, though over 60 countries have been affected.
To date, the number of H5N1 WHO-confirmed human cases amounts to 628 with 374 deaths from 15 countries. Human infections tend to occur during December–March and are associated with bird migratory paths and seasonal outbreaks in poultry.
Bird flu or Avian Influenza pandemic is one of the classical example of how the One Health approach successful.
Eventhough bird flu spread to all over the world by migratory birds and caused millions of poultry mortalities and thousands of human deaths,systematic one Health approach prevent the Avian Influenza lead to catastrophic effect in the world. Veterinary Doctors are working round the clock in Bird flu serveillance and eliminate the virus at local,regional and state level action plan.All Bird sanctuaries are under regular surveillance by forest authorities and veterinary Doctors.All suspected human cases refer to isolation wards and further to hospital with statergic biosecurity measures.So human deaths prevented and poultry meat safe for consumption.
This success achieved by the cooperative and Team approach of One Health by Human and veterinary professionals along with forest and Administrative professionals.
Brucellosis and One Health:
Brucellosis is one of the important emerging and re-emerging zoonotic disease.Thanks to one time Brucellosis vaccination programme for all heifers calves Prevent and Eradicate Brucellosis in cattle in near future.In endemic area veterinary Doctors carried out regular surveillance work in cow milk from milk collection points and in the susceptible individual cattle.Human Health professionals carried out Brucellosis surveillance work in veterinary Doctors and cattle owners who are the first line susceptible group for Brucellosis. Treatments for the affected humans by human doctors and routine monitoring of the affected people best way to Eradicate the Brucellosis.
Public Health Authorities,veterinary Authorities and Administrative Authorities at state and National level form Committees to monitor the Brucellosis at local,regional, state and national level as a One Health approach provide best results in Brucellosis Eradication.
Leptospirosis and One Health
Leptospirosis is the most prevalent zoonotic disease of Animals and Humans. The disease is re emerging globally and numerous outbreaks have occurred worldwide during the past decade.
Leptospirosis is caused by pathogenic spirochaetes. Pathogenic leptospires live in the kidneys of a large variety of mammalian species and are excreted into the environment with the urine. Indirect infection through contact with leptospires secreted into the environment is probably the main route of acquiring leptospirosis. Pathogenic leptospires survive longer in a warm and humid environment. Therefore, the disease is particularly prevalent in wet tropical and subtropical regions. The bacterium is sensitive to dry conditions, extreme temperatures and detergents. Currently nearly 300 serovars have been identified, divided into 25 serogroups. Seven main pathogenic species are known.
After years of research, we still do not have a universal vaccine for leptospirosis. Vaccination of All dogs in the villages and cities including the stray dogs,following the strict biosecurity measures are the best option to control and prevent Leptospirosis. Through one Health Approach if veterinary Doctors and human doctors and local administrative authorities work together in sharing disease occurrence status and prevention programmes are the keys to control and prevent Leptospirosis.
Mad cow syndrome and One Health:
Mad cow syndrome is one of important emerging zoonotic disease of cattle past one decade. It is a not curable and fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Disease caused by type of prion due to feeding the cattle, infected or contaminated meat or bone meal. First case of confirmed Mad cow syndrome in cattle recorded in UK year 1986.
A human version of mad cow disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is believed to be caused by eating beef products contaminated with central nervous system tissue, such as brain and spinal cord, from cattle infected with mad cow disease. For this reason, the USDA requires that all brain and spinal cord materials be removed from high-risk cattle — older cattle, animals that are unable to walk, and any animal that shows any signs of a neurological problem. These cow products do not enter the U.S. food supply. The USDA believes this practice effectively safeguards U.S. public health from vCJD.
In the United Kingdom, from 1986 to 2015, more than 184,000 cattle were diagnosed with the peak of new cases occurring in 1993.A few thousand additional cases have been reported in other regions of the world.
Mad cow syndrome is a classical example of how a cattle disease spill over to human by the exploitation of cattle feed methodology. Veterinary Doctors and Public health Authorities play a vital role in surveillance and Eradication of Mad cow syndrome in cattle and Humans. By the One Health approach of Human Doctors, Veterinary Doctors and Public health Authorities control and Eradicated the Mad cow syndrome.
Food Safety and One Health
Majority of the diseases spread through Food products like milk,meat,egg and byproducts. Food safety standards must be followed from Animal Farm production points to farm product selling point to supply the safety Food items to human food table.Top seven causes of Food borne
Diseases are salmonella,Listeria,staphylococcus, Trichinosis,E.coli,camphylobactoer and Clostridium. These organisms spread to farm contamination through animals and birds excreta, through Food products handlers, through transport and contamination at selling points. Vegetables, fruits, egg,meat,milk and by products are the common products expose to contamination and infected by food borne organisms. By one Health approach food production monitored from farm to consumer table for food safety by veterinary Doctors, Agriculture professionals, food safety professionals and Health inspectors. Cooperative approach of these professionals is very important for the food safety and prevention of food borne diseases of Humans,Animals and Birds.
Pandemics and One Health:
There are around 200 zoonotic diseases handled by veterinary Doctors in their Day to day practice.
Most of the zoonotic diseases are region specific and Country specific in Nature.One health Approach by veterinary Doctors, Human Doctors, Agriculture professionals and Public health Authorities on daily basis by sharing of disease conditions and its seasonal pattern and its impact on Human,Animals,plants and Ecosystem play the vital in prevention and Eradication of future Pandemics.
Countries must develop local,regional and state level One Health office to coordinate all departments dealing with Human health,Animal health,plant health as well as Ecosystems. One Health office established under Public health Act and One Health office entrusted power to issue notices and recommend legal action against violation of One Health rules.
References:
- Prioritising zoonoses for global health capacity building-Themes from one Health zoonotic disease workshop in 7 countries 2014-16,www.nchi.nlm.nih.gov
- A Review of Antibiotic use in food Animals:perspective,policy and potential.Timothy F.Landers,RN,CNP,PhD,Bevin Cohen,MPH and Elaine.L.Larson RN,PhD,FAAN,CIC
- Avian Influenza Wikipedia
- One Health approach possible way to control rabies by k P Acharya 2020.www.sciencedirect.com
- Brucellosis WHO 29 July 2020
