by Tim Hall, CareerSpot Editor


Health authorities, politicians and scientists have been slowly introducing the world to the concept of ‘One Health’ - an all-inclusive approach to health that extends from the human body right through the global environment. 

Our world is made up of linked systems, and the more we come to understand them, the more we realise how inextricable they are. 

Just within the human body, it is common for an ailment to be caused by the flow-on effects of what might seem like an unrelated original cause. 

For example, back when I was young, dumb and broke, I used to wake up with a severe headache almost every day, focused around the base of my skull. That headache was caused by sleeping with my neck at an odd angle, which I was doing to compensate for stiff shoulders, caused by sitting all day in a computer chair that was old and broken, because I was too cheap to replace it. 

Eventually, I got a job, began sitting in a different chair, sleeping normally because my shoulders felt fine, protecting my neck and alleviating the headaches. In this case, the root of my headaches was economic - caused and cured by money.  

Similarly, in the One Health model, public health is not limited to human anatomy, but rather  it can be served by interventions in animal welfare, environmental policy, education, work rights, regulation and even logistics. 

The concept is relatively new and is still on the rise. 

Veterinarian Calvin Schwabe coined the term ‘One Medicine’ in a veterinary medical textbook in 1964, to reflect the similarities between animal and human medicine. At the time, he was pushing for more collaboration between veterinarians and physicians to help solve global health problems.

In 2004, the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society held a conference at Rockefeller University in New York called ‘One World, One Health’, which spelled out new principles to describe a unified approach to the prevention of epidemic diseases.

One Health principles help emphasise the links between humans, animals, and the environment, which are vital to understanding disease dynamics. They also show the need for interdisciplinary approaches to prevention, education, investment, and policy development.

In recent years, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank and many other global and national authorities have developed frameworks for a One Health approach to human-animal-ecosystem health.
The approach has also been incorporated into legislation in some countries. For example, the United States passed the One Health Act in 2019, which established a framework for federal agencies to collaborate on issues related to human, animal, and environmental health.
In 2020, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution recognising the One Health approach as a key element in the prevention of future pandemics.

Advocates argue that One Health is most effective when targeted goals reveal infrastructure and regulatory gaps, and create networked system responses.

Solutions based on this premise may require surveillance and modelling of animal disease transmission, limiting environmental encroachment to lessen exposure to non-human diseases, and education about ecology and disease. 

One Health principles promote a systems-based approach to environmental management. 

This would involve considering the impacts of human activities on ecosystems, as well as the impacts of ecosystem health on human well-being. A One Health approach to ecological regulation could aid sustainable development and protect the health and well-being of both humans and the environment.

Many current and emerging technologies can help facilitate these goals, such as wearable devices and other trackers, which can provide valuable data for disease surveillance and early detection of health problems. 

More broadly, remote sensing and geospatial analysis technology can help monitor and track environmental changes that affect human and animal health, such as using satellite imagery to monitor changes in land use and vegetation that may impact wildlife habitat and increase the risk of disease transmission.

Unfortunately, the concept of One Health is also ripe for paranoid misinterpretation by conspiracy theorists. 

Some argue that the One Health approach is part of a larger agenda to hold power over populations and promote globalised systems of control. The One Health concept has been gaining coverage on crackpot news sites, where it can be found described as anything from a “a fundamentally different approach to the natural world” (reasonable enough) to a “communist mind virus” (tinfoil hat with a baking paper feather).

Of course, these unfounded claims misrepresent the One Health concept. One Health is not about controlling individuals or promoting a particular political agenda. Instead, it seeks collaboration and understanding between different disciplines in order to promote the health and well-being of all living beings and the ecosystems in which they live.

The One Health approach has already been applied in a variety of areas, including:

  • The Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) - a partnership of over 60 countries and international organisations working to strengthen global health security by improving the detection, prevention, and response to infectious disease threats. One of the core principles of GHSA is the One Health approach.

  • The PREDICT project - a USAID-funded project that aims to identify and characterise the viruses that have the potential to cause pandemics. The project uses a One Health approach by working with partners in human health, animal health, and wildlife conservation.

  • The EcoHealth Alliance - a non-profit organisation that works to protect wildlife and public health by promoting the One Health approach. The organisation conducts research and provides technical support for One Health initiatives around the world.

The future will bring more evidence of the inextricable links between systems of this planet, so it is likely that One Health and similar concepts will continue to help guide humanity’s response. Communist mind virus to some, sustainable revolution to others - expect to hear more about concepts like One Health.