Dennis Caroll- One Health; the new Global Health paradigm
Tracing back to its origin in the 1960s, the One Health approach towards sustainable health attainment is still minimal. The constantly increasing health risks have most notably been expounded by the impacts of anthropogenic interventions.
COVID-19 in particular has exposed the weaknesses and loopholes in the global health sector. Unpredictably, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a harrowing wake-up call to the seemingly new reality of deadly and economically devastating global pandemics; their inextricable ties to the destruction of landscapes and their sustenance potentials.
For a long while now, the Environmental and Wildlife Health concepts have not been put into prior consideration while addressing the global health concerns and challenges; alongside the human medical and veterinary knowledge. While humans continue to exploit natural resources beyond sustainable rates, there are still very high chances of occurrence of serial pandemics, most notably of wildlife origin.
Zoonoses in particular have been known to thrive, stray and sway moire easily among wildlife, human and domestic animal populations; using environmental components on naturally occurring landscapes as the transmission media.
According to Dennis Caroll, Chair of the Global Virome Project Leadership Board, speaking at the GLF Biodiversity Digital Conference 2020 highlights on the relevance of the One Health approach cutting across environmentalists, wildlife biologists and veterinary practitioners in addressing the health crisis. He draws his experience from his initial work on avian influenza.
One Health is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach—working at the local, regional, national, and global levels—with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.
Zoonoses are of wildlife origin and have been identified to similarly affect not only domestic animals but also posed a public health concern to humans as well.
Ref.
Center for Disease Control: https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/index.html
World Health Organisation:
https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/one-health
http://www.emro.who.int/fr/about-who/rc61/zoonotic-diseases.html
