What is One Health? Why should you care about it?

One Health is the interconnection between human health, animal health, and the health of our shared environment. It’s a term that’s been trending since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic served as an influential advocate for One Health, sparking discussions in popular news sources about zoonotic diseases, the interplay of diseases with climate change, and how such connections impact us all. The devastating impact of COVID-19 along with the surge of interest in its origins, manifested in grants encouraging One Health research and universities funding programs centered around it.

The core concept of One Health is a simple one. When our environment is healthy then the organisms that live in it are healthy, because of this connection we all have a powerful impact on each other. What does this have to do with microbiology? Well at the core of One Health lies a fundamental microbiological truth: the world is teeming with microorganisms that shape our health in profound ways. Bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa move between humans, animals, and the environment, making the study of microbiology essential to understanding and implementing One Health principles.

Image/FAO, UNEP, WHO, and WOAH https://doi.org/10.4060/cc2289en

Foundations of One Health

While the term “One Health” may be somewhat young, its foundations are rooted in the cultural beliefs and practices of ancient civilizations globally. Such as, the ideologies found in ancient Indian Ayurveda and traditional Andean medicine. Hippocrates and Aristotle, were among the earliest contributors, they articulated One Health concepts in their writings about what is necessary for there to be a healthy society. Indigenous societies globally have held One Health practices for thousands of years and continue to do so. Given that the concept can be found everywhere in the world, it is obvious that as humans we’ve always recognized the power of working in synchrony with our ecosystem. Despite these vital insights, as time progressed, many societies lost touch with the profound interconnection between humans, other living organisms, and the environment.

“The physician heals, nature makes well.” ~ Aristotle

And while we may have lost focus from the deep connection between us, other living organisms (including microbes), and the environment; we have always dealt with and understood the impacts of the environment and other organisms on our health. As humans we have adapted to our environment since our origin. In our rapidly changing climate, shifts in microbial ecosystems are affecting disease dynamics in unpredictable ways. With the potential of melting permafrost to release ancient pathogens and deforestation to bring humans into closer contact with wildlife reservoirs, we are arguably given challenges even greater than what our ancestors faced.

One Health with Cheryl Stroud, DVM, PhD

Zoonotic Diseases and One Health

In the same way humans have dealt with environmental changes since our origins, we have also dealt with zoonotic diseases - that is diseases that are transmitted between humans and animals. From the adoption of agriculture and trade, zoonotic diseases like the Plague, Tuberculosis, and Influenza proliferated. The discovery of germ theory in the 19th century reshaped our understanding of zoonotic diseases; however, microbiology became a distinct scientific field. With specialization came the fragmentation of disciplines, and the interconnectedness of health across species was largely overlooked until One Health was recognized as a field. It was the recognition of the impact of zoonotic diseases that led to the “One Medicine” movement, promoting collaborations between veterinary and human medical practitioners. This paved the way for the evolution of One Health, acknowledging the broader cycle of connection involving also microorganisms, plants, and shared environmental conditions.

One Health is an official field and department in governmental entities, international organizations, like the CDC and WHO, and most universities. For the most part, it remained siloed to these organizations and academic institutions. Which brings us back to COVID-19. While there were several diseases of zoonotic origin that have had a global impact; such as COVID-19’s predecessors SARS and MERS, as well as Swine Flu and HIV. COVID-19 is the one that seems to have brought One Health slightly out of the shadows. Several articles and interviews referring to One Health and the linkages between human health, environmental health, and animal health have emerged. Despite its increasing popularity, One Health remains largely confined within academic and organizational circles, lacking full recognition even within these spheres. As climate disasters unfold at this very moment and the onset of the next pandemic looms, there’s a crucial need for One Health to receive full recognition. Recognizing the microbial connections that sustain life on Earth is essential to protecting public health and biodiversity.

Sumana Goli is a public health professional with a focus in One Health. She has a Master’s in Global Health from Duke University and a Bachelor’s of Science in Microbiology from NC State University. She currently works as a research analyst for a One Health centered non-profit research organization and a content creator for The One Health Guide.

Resources 

One Health – Public Health News (cornell.edu)

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/82_2012_223 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272844819_A_history_of_One_Health

Disease X: A hidden but inevitable creeping danger - PMC (nih.gov)

Planetary & One Health | Review 360 (articulate.com)

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (1967). “Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study”