Details about the concept of ‘One Health’
Introduction:
- The idea of “One Health” is currently gaining popularity throughout the world, and India has recently made major efforts to implement concepts and techniques based on this idea to improve how it responds to health emergencies.
About:
- One Health is a comprehensive method of problem-solving that acknowledges the linkages between the wellbeing of people, animals, plants, and their environment.
- The works of Hippocrates (460–367 BC), who thought about the connections between public health and clean settings, provide an early example of this idea.
- Rudolf Virchow (1821–1863), a German physician and pathologist, later stated: “There are no dividing lines between animal and human medicines—and there shouldn’t be.”
Specialities:
- Urbanisation, industrialization, and population growth have all contributed to the destruction of ecosystems and biodiversity.
- Zoonoses, or diseases that can spread from animals to people, are associated with these adverse environmental changes.
- According to research, zoonotic infections account for 60% of newly emerging illnesses that might affect people. Bird flu, Ebola, rabies, and Japanese encephalitis are among them.
- The control of vector-borne diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and food safety and security have also emerged as serious problems for humanity.
- When considered collectively, these problems call for the efficiency and intersectoral management that define the One Health approach.
- Resource requirements across sectors are reduced with One Health. It accomplishes this in part by promoting coordination across several branches of government, such as the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy, Environment, and Science and Technology.
- By using a One Health perspective, researchers can, for instance, share their research and conclusions and finally come to conclusions that result in durable, long-lasting, and predictable policies.
Newest One Health projects:
- The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–2023 brought attention to the value of using a One Health strategy.
- In 2006, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) of the Government of India established the “Standing Committee on Zoonoses.”
- The first One Health consortium in India was established by the Department of Biotechnology in October 2021.
- The Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor will lead a larger “National One Health Mission,” which India is now preparing for.
Execution strategies:
- There are four main steps to the implementation process. Consistent political will and long-term financial plans are needed for each step.
Initial Stage: Communication:
- The fundamental channels of communication between the various ministries and/or sectors are established at this stage. The main objective is to maintain communication and involvement with key stakeholders throughout the One Health transformation.
Stage 2: Working together:
- After establishing communication amongst the pertinent sectors, sector participants must share their knowledge and experience in order to convert concepts into quick fixes.
Third Stage: Coordination:
- This stage is typically characterised by long-term, routine activity. In this stage, a national or subnational agency is in charge of leading initiatives to achieve One Health.
Fourth Stage: Integration:
- Vertical organisation is the default for government sectors and their units, which is beneficial for handling specific activities. However, One Health is implicitly intersectoral, and the current system cannot accommodate One Health’s aims and methods if it does not ‘horizontalise’: that is, it must integrate and establish synergies between initiatives carried out across all sectors.
Moving ahead:
- India should go beyond short-term partnerships and establish an integrated, scientifically based ecosystem in order to fully benefit from a One Health approach.
- This is necessary for platforms to give the appropriate researchers access to laboratories and biological samples in addition to office space.
