One Health: The Human-Animal-Environment Interfaces in Emerging Infectious Diseases - The Concept and Examples of a One Health Approach

One Health is an emerging concept that aims to bring together human, animal, and environmental health. Achieving harmonized approaches for disease detection and prevention is difficult because traditional boundaries of medical and veterinary practice must be crossed. In the 19th and early 20th centuries this was not the case―then researchers like Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch and physicians like William Osler and Rudolph Virchow crossed the boundaries between animal and human health. More recently Calvin Schwabe revised the concept of One Medicine. This was critical for the advancement of the field of epidemiology, especially as applied to zoonotic diseases. The future of One Health is at a crossroads with a need to more clearly define its boundaries and demonstrate its benefits. Interestingly the greatest acceptance of One Health is seen in the developing world where it is having significant impacts on control of infectious diseases.

This volume brings together the concepts that underpin a One Health approach and a range of examples of this approach in action around a variety of emerging infectious diseases. The first section starts with a human clinical perception, brings in the veterinary and human –animal interface perspective and then links this with environment issues, with a special chapter dealing with wildlife. It concludes by looking at the economics of a One Health approach, both in terms of the costs of delivering a One Health approach as well as the value added.

The second section looks at a number of key emerging infectious diseases and in each case details how a One Health approach has added value, particularly in terms of disease control and cost outcomes. The examples cover virus, bacterial, protozoal and parasitic infections and provide case studies at the national, regional and global level. The studies themselves vary in depth and detail but provide an engaging set of examples of the value of a One Health approach. In all cases, the authors have local and personal experience of the disease in question, providing real life examples of what can be achieved. The final chapter entitled “Men, primates and germs: an ongoing affair” provides a fascinating insight into pathogen host switching between closely related species which serves to illustrate a core value of a One Health approach.