More-Than-One Health human, animals, and the environment post-COVID (original) (raw)

Where should "Humans" be in "One Health"? Lessons from COVID-19 for One Health

BMC Globalization and Health, 2024

The culling of animals that are infected, or suspected to be infected, with COVID-19 has fuelled outcry. What might have contributed to the ongoing debates and discussions about animal rights protection amid global health crises is the lack of a unified understanding and internationally agreed-upon definition of "One Health". The term One Health is often utilised to describe the imperative to protect the health of humans, animals, and plants, along with the overarching ecosystem in an increasingly connected and globalized world. However, to date, there is a dearth of research on how to balance public health decisions that could impact all key stakeholders under the umbrella of One Health, particularly in contexts where human suffering has been immense. To shed light on the issue, this paper discusses whether One Health means "human-centred connected health" in a largely human-dominated planet, particularly amid crises like COVID-19. The insights of this study could help policymakers make more informed decisions that could effectively and efficiently protect human health while balancing the health and well-being of the rest of the inhabitants of our shared planet Earth.

One Health—Attaining Optimal Health for People, Animals, and the Environment

Microbe Magazine, 2010

is a paradigm that encompasses the health of humans, animals, and their environment, recognizing that the health of each domain is inextricably interconnected. The One Health concept is interdisciplinary, comprising, among others, public health, clinical medicine, microbiology, ecology, and geography, as well as public outreach. One Health has particularly great relevance for microbiology as a unifying discipline that connects health among humans, animals, and the environment. Given that over 60% of emerging infectious disease events are caused by the transmission of an infectious agent from animals (zoonoses), with 75% of these originating from wildlife, employing a systematic One Health approach has great potential for reducing threats to global health from infectious diseases. The One Health approach can advance health care for the 21st century and beyond by accelerating biomedical research, enhancing public health efficacy, expeditiously expanding the scientific knowledge base, and improving medical education and clinical care. Unfortunately, practices in human and veterinary medicine and environmental management often do not recognize these links; a focus on One Health across disciplines is a strategic necessity in addressing contemporary health issues created by the convergence of these domains. Fortunately, however, the One Health paradigm is receiving increasing attention Summary • Employing a systematic One Health approach has great potential for reducing threats to global health from infectious diseases. • Modern molecular methods, especially metagenomics, are providing insights into the relationships between microorganisms and virulence genes in animal populations (both domestic and wildlife), humans, and diverse environments. • The pattern of most of the newly emergent diseases is one of demography, human development, and anthropogenic environmental change driving repeated pathogen spillover from wildlife. • Recent diseases and pathogens that illustrate the importance of the One Health perspective include Q fever, hantaviruses, SARS, West Nile virus, Nipah virus, cholera, malaria, and dengue. • ASM is exploring ways of increasing communications among medical, public health, animal health, and environmental researchers and practitioners.

The Components of ‘One World - One Health’ Approach

Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, 2013

The interaction between living beings, including men, animals and pathogens, sharing the same environment, should be considered as a unique dynamic system, in which the health of each component is inextricably interconnected and dependent with the others. Nowadays, a new integrated One Health approach is reflecting this interdependence with a holistic view to the ecological system. The One Health approach can be defined as a collaborative and a multidisciplinary effort at local, national and global level to guarantee an optimal healthy status for humans, animals and environment. Strictly related to the One Health concept is to be considered the control of infectious diseases, which have influenced the course of human history. Four different components might be identified as key elements within the 'One World-One Health' (OWOH) approach: the geographical component, the ecological one, the human activities and the food-agricultural ones.

The epistemic and ethical onus of ‘One Health’

Bioethics, 2018

Bioethicists, alongside various medical practitioners, epidemiologists, infectious disease specialists, microbial biologists, and ecologists have been reminding us that health is best understood by addressing animal, human, and environmental concerns simultaneously, as they are fundamentally linked. 1 Indeed, as the renowned epidemiologist William Foege claimed: '[y]ou cannot tell the story of human health separate from animal health or environmental health'. 2 A cross-section of these diverse researchers has come together around the idea that human life and human health are intimately interrelated with other species and inextricably linked to the environment-a position with important bioethical implications. From this starting point, this same cross-section raises an important methodological point as they decry the overspecialization of medicine and the compartmentalized scientific knowledge that underlies medical practice-all this, at the expense of integrating central aspects of veterinary medicine and environmental management into human medicine.

The interfaces between One Health and Global Health: A scoping review

One Health, 2023

One Health (OH) and Global Health (GH) are interconnected perspectives that may contribute to subsidizing GH policies. This scoping review aims to map the volume, nature, and characteristics of studies focused on the interface of OH and GH concepts. We used PubMed (MEDLINE), Embase, Scopus, and The Virtual Health Library (BVS) as the literature data sources for the review. The search strategy used the descriptors "one health", "one health concept", "one medicine", "global health", "international health", and "planetary health" in title and abstracts. We included original research presented as articles in scientific journals, book chapters or conference papers written in English, Spanish, or Portuguese, exploring the intersections between OH and GH concepts, not necessarily as their primary objectives, and published up to December 31, 2021. A total of 1.060 references were identified in the databases after removing duplicates, 139 publications selected for full-text evaluation and 45 publications were included for analysis. All included publications were published between 2011 and 2021, with the highest concentration in 2014 (22.2%). First authors were most frequently from the United States (35.6%), followed by the United Kingdom (15.6%). Overall, seven key themes were identified zoonosis, emerging infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, food safety, policy, human resources, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The majority of the included publications employed OH concepts based on the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Veterinary Medical Association definitions. We observed a common understanding of OH as an area of knowledge involving multiple disciplines and professionals and recognizing that both humans' and animals' health and the environment are interdependent. Although most authors demonstrated that health issues transcend national boundaries, a formal definition for GH was frequently not clearly identified. OH and GH interfaces are essential for accomplishing the 2030 Agenda and its SDG.

The One Health Concept: 10 Years Old and a Long Road Ahead

Frontiers in veterinary science, 2018

Over the past decade, a significant increase in the circulation of infectious agents was observed. With the spread and emergence of epizootics, zoonoses, and epidemics, the risks of pandemics became more and more critical. Human and animal health has also been threatened by antimicrobial resistance, environmental pollution, and the development of multifactorial and chronic diseases. This highlighted the increasing globalization of health risks and the importance of the human-animal-ecosystem interface in the evolution and emergence of pathogens. A better knowledge of causes and consequences of certain human activities, lifestyles, and behaviors in ecosystems is crucial for a rigorous interpretation of disease dynamics and to drive public policies. As a global good, health security must be understood on a global scale and from a global and crosscutting perspective, integrating human health, animal health, plant health, ecosystems health, and biodiversity. In this study, we discuss ho...

The science behind One Health: at the interface of humans, animals, and the environment

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2017

Humans face a grand quality-of-life challenge as growing demands for resources for an ever-expanding population threaten the existence of wildlife populations, degrade land, and pollute air and water. Public investment and policy decisions that will shape future interactions of humans, animals, and the environment need scientific input to help find common ground for durable and sustainable success. The Second International Conference on One Medicine One Science brought together a broad range of scientists, trainees, regulatory authorities, and health experts from 34 countries to inform and discuss the human impacts of air quality; the complexities of water quality, access, and conflicts; the opportunities and uncertainties in precision medicine; and the role of science communication in health policy formulation. Workshops focused on the roles and development of physician-scientists and multidisciplinary teams in complex problem solving, Big Data tools for analysis and visualization,...