One World, One Health: Prevent Zoonoses, Stop the Spread
Deep Narayan Singh, Ranjana Sinha, Gyan Deo Singh, Vivek Kumar Singh, Mritunjai Kumar, Manmohan Kumar, Suchit Kumar & Sumit Singhal
Bihar Veterinary College, Patna
Bihar Animal Sciences University, Patna- 800 014
The COVID-19 pandemic, a human public health crisis resulting from a virus of potential animal origin, underlined the validity of the ‘One Health’ concept in understanding and confronting global health risks. Health risks are increasing with trade globalization, global warming and changes in human behaviour, all of which provide multiple opportunities for pathogens to colonies new territories and evolve into new forms. Most risk assessments focus on the transmission of pathogens from animals to humans, while, animal health is also greatly impacted by diseases passed from humans. SARS-CoV-2, tuberculosis, various influenza viruses, among others, can harm or be fatal to different species of animals. Gorillas and chimpanzees, with their close genetic makeup to humans, are particularly susceptible to human diseases, and they, as well as other endangered species should be handled with care by Veterinary services, wildlife authorities and researchers.
One Health is the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally, to attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment, as defined or described by the One Health Initiative Task Force (OHITF). According to the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), “One Health” is an interdisciplinary approach to studying public health issues in humans, animals, and their surrounding environments. This is accomplished through the implementation of specifically designed programs and research activities that involve multiple sectors to promote animal as well as human wellbeing. It developed in response to evidence of the spreading of zoonotic diseases between species and increasing awareness of “the interdependence of human and animal health and ecological change”.
A number of organizations throughout the world support the objectives of “One Health” including the One Health Commission (OHC), One Health Initiative, One Health Platform, CDC One Health Office, and the Quadripartite Organizations. The Quadripartite Organizations viz.. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), The World Health Organization (WHO), World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, formerly OIE), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and others. One Health promotes a sustainable and healthy future through collaboration, communication, coordination and capacity building.
The basic thought behind one world, one health concept is promoting sustainable health for prosperous communities, productive animals and balanced ecosystems. The motto of One world, one health programme is also strengthen the capacity building expand the human resource base needed to prevent, detect and respond to potential pandemic disease outbreaks and increase integration of animal, wildlife and human disease surveillance & outbreak response systems. The One Health approach is particularly relevant for food and water safety, nutrition, the control of zoonosis, pollution management, and combating antimicrobial resistance. “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” (OHHLEP One Health definition, 2021).
The overall goal of this collaboration is to enhance One health policy formation and implementation, in order to contribute to improved capacity of public health in the region. There is abundant evidence that no single sector or department can sufficiently manage the challenges of public health in any country, region or continent. Experiences from the fight against Ebola and the highly pathogenic avian influenza in the past few years demonstrated the effectiveness of multi-sectoral, multiagency approaches and the need for specific training targeting multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary public health professionals not limited by national or regional borders in dealing with public health threats. In response to this challenge, the One Health approach has been advocated as the global framework for strengthening, collaboration and capacities of the sectors & actors involved in health service delivery. One Health policy formation and implementation, to contribute to improved capacity of countries to respond to any emerging pandemics in the region.
One Health approach as part of agri-food system transformation for the health of people, animals, plants and the environment. This involves a spectrum of actors and work on sustainable agriculture, animal, plant, forest, and aquaculture health, food safety, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), food security, nutrition and livelihoods. It is essential for progress to anticipate, prevent, detect and control diseases that spread between animals and humans, tackle AMR, ensure food safety, prevent environment-related human and animal health threats, as well as combatting many other challenges. A One Health approach is also critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). FAO also works with partners to promote health systemically, in particular, the Quadripartite which includes FAO, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). FAO focuses on eliminating hunger, promoting food security, food safety and healthy diets, preventing and controlling transboundary diseases, zoonoses and AMR, to protect the livelihoods of farmers from the impacts of plant and animal diseases, and to increase the sustainability and resilience of agrifood systems, with One Health benefits.
The scheme has been launched by the following four organizations:
- Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO),
- United Nations Environment Program (UNEP),
- World Health Organization (WHO), and
- World Animal Health Organization (WOAH)
One Health promotes a sustainable and healthy future through the United Nations Environment Program through collaboration, communication, coordination and capacity building. Its goal is to create a framework for integrating capabilities and systems. This will help to better prevent, anticipate, detect and take necessary steps to collectively prevent health hazards.
The plan is built on six interrelated actions. These actions collectively contribute to achieving sustainable health and food systems.
These six actions include the following:
- Enhance One Health capabilities to strengthen health systems;
- reducing the risk of zoonotic diseases turning into epidemic and pandemic;
- Control and eradication of zoonotic epidemics, neglected tropical and carrier-borne diseases;
- strengthen the assessment, management and communication of food safety risks;
- Curbing Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), which is slowly becoming a global pandemic, and integrating the environment into One Health.
- One Health is an integrated and coordinated approach. It aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of humans, animals, plants and ecosystems.
Key challenges before One Health:
- The emergence of new infectious diseases,
- The burden of endemic zoonotic and carrier-borne diseases is increasing,
- There is an increasing threat to food and water conservation around the world.
FAO One Health priorities includes:
- Improving early warning systemson animal and plant pests and diseases, including zoonotic diseases at the human-animal-plant-environment (HAPE) interface.
- Strengthening biosecurity for pest and disease managementin animals and plants, including zoonotic diseases, pests and invasive alien species management.
- Facilitating effective emergency preparedness and responsefor anticipatory action on and response to food-chain emergencies, food safety issues and other health events at the human, animal, plant and environment interface
- Heightening AMR risk managementat national, regional and global level by supporting One Health responses to AMR in the food and agriculture sector
- Enhancing One Health systemsthrough strengthening contributions to One Health and biodiversity, and its ecosystem services, environmental health, soil/land, water, food safety and the sustainability of agri-food systems.
Zoonosis is an infectious diseases that has jumped from a non-human animal to humans and vice-versa. Zoonotic pathogens may be bacterial, viral or parasitic, or may involve unconventional agents and can spread to humans through direct control or through food, water or the environment. They represent a major public health problem around the world due to human’s close relationship with animals in agriculture, as companion and in the natural environment. Zoonosis can cause disruptions in the production and trade of animal products for food and other uses. Zoonoses comprise a large percentage of existing, emerging and re-emerging diseases. There are over 200 known types of zoonoses. Ebola, salmonellosis, rabies, leptospirosis, H5N1 avian influenza, MERS, Zika, tuberculosis, Rift Valley fever and others such as COVID-19 have caused global pandemic. Some zoonoses such as rabies are 100 percent preventable through vaccination and other methods.
Zoonotic diseases or diseases transmitted from animals to human beings are on the rise across the world. According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, more than 65% of communicable diseases are zoonotic in origin. Even COVID-19 might be of animal origin. Among zoonotic diseases, rabies, leptospirosis, tuberculosis, food poisoning, brucellosis, West Nile disease, Salmonellosis, Avian influenza and swine fever are on the rise in the country. “The One Health strategy consisting of comprehensive health of human beings, animals and the environment needs to be implemented to control hundreds of zoonotic diseases. Poor waste management, unscientific slaughtering practices, increase in the number of stray dogs and climatic variations lead to an increase in the incidence of zoonotic diseases,” says Sethu Madhavan, former Director of Entrepreneurship, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University.
Preparedness & Communications against diseases & health
Emergency preparedness for emerging infectious diseases is also a very important aspect. Preparedness planning using One Health approach involves participation, engagement and readiness from all relevant sectors. Improved coordination during emergencies may reduce the size or impact of a human or animal pandemic. One Health coordination in laboratory, surveillance, and workforce (described in other sections) can benefit both routine and emergency activities.
An effective communication strategy should include activities both internal and external to the government. Internally within government, a communication strategy should establish process for relevant sectors and stakeholders to communicate and share information. Communication strategies can formalize channels and methods of communication, which helps align expectations, goals and messaging, as well as build relationships among internal One Health sectors. Despite the benefits of joint communication, cross-sector communication can be challenging for several reasons, including differences in terminologies used.
A number of national & international training frameworks should be needed for training and education programs that use a One Health approach to equip the labor force with the skills necessary to combat zoonotic diseases.
Conclusions:
One Health is a collaborative, multi-sectoral, and trans-disciplinary approach—working at the local, national, regional and global levels—with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes that recognize the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment. Hence, ensuring that the benefits of a One Health approach to zoonotic disease management should be recognized by Government policy and decision makers can improve program success and sustainability as well as prevent zoonosis with stop and spread the occurrence of transmission of zoonotic diseases.
