One Health: a 360 approach to face major health emergencies

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines the One Health concept as “a comprehensive and unifying approach that aims to balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems.” Thus, this notion is born under the pretext that, if one of these areas is altered, it has an impact on the rest of them.

To clarify, let’s take a simple example: as a result of climate change and the disappearance of forested areas, species such as ticks are forced to move to urban areas. There, they can infect animals such as our pets, who, through tick transmission, can cause diseases in humans, such as Lyme disease, a bacterial infection that affects more than 70,000 people in Europe every year.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to control this interrelationship between these three areas. According to the WHO, it is estimated that 75% of infectious diseases in humans have animal origin and that 60% of these are zoonotic, that is, they are transmitted from animals to humans. Often, we do not think about the origin of diseases, which can come from animals, food, degradation of ecosystems or air quality.

To improve this situation and, above all, act under the premise of prevention, from health organizations and the healthcare industry, it is essential to face a series of challenges. We talk about key aspects to face future pandemics as quickly and effectively as possible, both nationally and internationally, as well as preventing possible health emergencies.

The three great challenges in the One Health approach

1. Antimicrobial resistance

One of the great current health challenges is drug resistance of microbes, viruses and fungi, categorized by the WHO as one of the ten main public health threats. And, in this aspect, environmental pollution plays a crucial role. The dumping of medicines, plastics and other toxic substances in rivers, oceans and seas favors the appearance of microorganisms resistant to antibiotics, making it increasingly difficult to combat these bacteria. Thus, it is essential to establish strategies that guarantee care for the environment and that, ultimately, focus on preventing damage to our ecosystem, thus avoiding the development of antimicrobial resistance.

2. The implementation of new technologies

The emergence of new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), offers a world of possibilities to improve strategies and processes in the One Health approach. AI has become a fundamental tool for the industry that allows us to analyze large amounts of data, both environmental and related to human and animal health, allowing us to cross-reference these analyzes and find patterns and interrelationships between all this data.

This allows us to obtain valuable insights that are subsequently used to develop models that improve health in a holistic way, applying new technologies to aspects such as, for example, wastewater treatment in the agri-food sector, reducing emissions of ammonia on farms or slurry management. However, the implementation of these new technologies in administrations involves high costs, which represents a significant barrier.

3. Public-private cooperation

Cooperation between health system agents is essential to guarantee the One Health approach. At this point, coordination between administrations, companies, research centers and society is necessary to implement integrated policies that support a holistic approach to health, in addition to promoting research that yields scientific advances that provide new solutions to address the great threats to global health.

Thus, the creation of the future State Public Health Agency (AESAP) from the Ministry of Health will allow progress in the control, identification and evaluation of the health status of the population, as well as recognizing the problems, threats or risks in this area. public health, paying special attention to health inequalities. The ‘One Health’ approach will be central to AESAP, integrating human, animal and environmental health to more effectively address complex health issues, fostering cooperation between different sectors and disciplines.

Communication as a must for a 360-degree approach to One Health

In order to face these 3 great challenges and advance in a comprehensive and holistic approach to health, communication is established as a powerful tool that, implemented effectively, can help understand the importance of the interrelation between human health , animal and environmental.

In this sense, the dissemination and transfer of knowledge among all actors can help bring health professionals, scientists, legislators and the general public closer to the importance of the interrelationship between human, animal and environmental health. Therefore, awareness and education campaigns must be implemented to inform about how the health of ecosystems, animals and humans are intrinsically linked.

Georgina Rosell

PARTNER AND SENIOR DIRECTOR OF HEALTHCARE FOR EUROPE