One Health News

The One Health Day Coordinating Team (https://www.onehealthcommission.org/en/eventscalendar/one_health_day/coordinating_team/) comprised of members of the One Health Commission, the One Health Platform Foundation and the One Health Initiative pro bono team was very pleased to have received numerous outstanding entries for the 2016 Student Event Competition. Competing groups had to meet a set of criteria (see Eligibility Criteria) and were required to submit a post-event summary. The International Panel of Judges  was impressed with the work of the One Health Day Student teams, and the decision was challenging.

Congratulations to the Winning Student Teams!

Based on the Student Competition Assessment Criteria

These three 2016 Student Teams  each won a $5,000 prize (alphabetical order):

George Washington University in Washington D.C.

University of California at Davis, California

Washington University at St Louis, Missouri

The Planning Team added two additional  $500 Special Recognition Awards to the teams from:

Makerere University, Uganda

University of Pretoria, South Africa

Please see complete notice of the special One Health Day Student Awards 2016 on the One Health Commission’s webpage. https://www.onehealthcommission.org/en/eventscalendar/one_health_day/student_awards_2016/

SEE http://wvc2017korea.com/

University of Washington - Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences

Center for One Health Research Blog

One Health and Planetary Health

• See complete article in link: http://deohs.washington.edu/cohr/blog/2017/15/one-health-and-planetary-health
• In 2015, the Rockefeller Foundation released a major report about the state of the planet, called Safeguarding Human Health in the Anthropocene Epoch. This document outlines the case that anthropogenic changes in the environment are now threatening the basic life support services of the earth’s systems. Some of the concerning trends include biodiversity loss, climate change, particulate air pollution, ocean acidification, and deforestation. The report indicates a number of ways that this environmental degradation can pose a serious threat to human health in the future, and calls for urgent research and policy action to address these large-scale problems.
• At the Center for One Health Research (COHR), we view these critical environmental threats highlighted by the Rockefeller Planetary Health Report as intrinsic to our understanding and application of One Health.
• The COHR approach to One Health is to look at the interconnections between hierarchically organized systems of human, animal, and environmental health, as depicted in this figure.
• SEE FIGURE provided in link.
• Each domain of health: human, animal, and environment, can be seen as a system of increasing complexity, from the molecular level, up to the individual level, and higher to the community, and finally “planetary” level where global populations of humans and animals are interacting with biosphere forces, as detailed in the Planetary Health report.
• The utility of the One Health approach to planetary health is that it shows how interactions at simpler levels, such as emerging infectious diseases in individuals or small populations, can be connected to higher level interactions with environmental drivers such as climate change and deforestation. In the same way, an “animal sentinel event”, such as a sudden stranding of whales or other marine mammals, while sometimes traceable to a proximate cause such as a viral infection or a toxic exposure, may be telling us something about greater environmental forces at work, including the effects of an expanding human population.
• This  figure of interconnected human, animal, and environmental One Health systems, shows how an animal sentinel event at an individual or group level,  can be scaled up to shed light on planetary level forces.
• SEE FIGURE provided in link.
• A key advantage to using the One Health approach to address large-scale health issues related to environmental change is that animal populations, like the canary in the coalmine, may be more sensitive to the effects of a changing environment. For example, the Rockefeller report mentions the paradox of human health indicators currently improving across the globe despite the many signs of environmental degradation. By contrast, the increase in animal disease outbreaks and extinctions is easier to connect to the environmental changes.
• While many of the interactions between environmental forces and both humans and animals can be negative, One Health can also provide a model for sustainability of these interconnected systems. For example, a farm with animals, if managed in a One Health way that optimizes the health of the humans (both farmworkers and consumers and community members) as well as the animals and the local environment, can provide a scalable model that will go far toward mitigating the environmental consequences of large scale food production. One Health therefore goes “local to global”, or, more accurately, “molecular to planetary”.
• We encourage our colleagues working on One Health efforts to consider how to establish clear linkages between smaller scale interactions they may be investigating (such as zoonotic disease outbreaks) and the larger issues of a rapidly changing, and not so healthy, planet.

Editor’s comment: This presentation represents a thoughtful and reasonable assessment approach.  

Article provided by:

Peter Rabinowitz, MD, MPH

Associate Professor,University of Washington

Depts of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences,

Global Health, Family Medicine

Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)

Director, Center for One Health Research (COHR)

http://deohs.washington.edu/cohr

Dr. Rabinowitz is a longstanding One Health supporter/advocate http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/supporters.php and member of the One Health Initiative team’s Advisory Board http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/advBoard.php.

In light of the preceding NEWS item from The Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) http://www.cpme.eu/:

“The professional and student organisations representing the Medical Doctors, the Dentists, the Veterinarians and their students sent a letter to the Deans of medical, dental and veterinary schools across Europe inviting them to work collaboratively under the ‘One Health’ concept to tackle current and future challenges for the three professions and our society.

The letter is here available http://doc.cpme.eu:591/adopted/2017/cpme.2017-012.FINAL.OneHealthApproachLetter.FINAL.15052017.pdf.”

The following previously noted publication is essential for all U.S. and international Medical Schools to seriously consider!

European medical schools urged to adopt ‘One Health’ approach

https://goo.gl/oN9fEt and SEE letter https://goo.gl/kxppL4 co-signed by six organisations including the Standing Committee of European Doctors and the European Medical Students Association

Univadis

"While the One Health approach has recently gained recognition in Europe and worldwide, the organisations said its application in education needs to ..."

From Google Alerts

See: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/health-ministers-commit-to-address-antimicrobial-resistance-in-g20-summit-57914 or https://goo.gl/PQiSLc.

Images of One Health

SEE MORE https://goo.gl/TLprii

One Health

67th Annual James Steele Conference on Diseases in Nature Transmissible to Man (DIN)

May/24/2017 - May/26/2017

Irving, Texas, USA

"DIN is a not-for-profit conference and serves as a forum for the presentation of epidemiological investigations, clinical case studies, basic and applied research, and other topics in emerging and current zoonotic and environmentally-acquired infectious diseases.   The conference's goal is to increase knowledge and awareness of these diseases within the medical, public health, and academic research communities.  

Participants include physicians, physician assistants, nurses, veterinarians, epidemiologists, virologists, microbiologists, parasitologists, entomologists, sanitarians, public health professionals, wildlife biologists, animal control officers, and others involved in the diagnosis, investigation, prevention, control, and research of zoonoses and environmentally-acquired infectious diseases.

DIN is co-sponsored by the Texas Department of State Health Services Zoonosis Control Branch and the Texas Health Institute.  For more information about zoonoses in Texas, please visit the Zoonosis Control Branch's website at http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/idcu/health/zoonosis/.  For more information about the Texas Health Institute, please visit http://www.texashealthinstitute.org/.

Please join us May 24-26, 2017 at the beautiful AAA 4-Diamond Omni Mandalay Hotel in Irving, Texas for the 67th annual meeting of the James Steele Conference on Diseases in Nature Transmissible to Man.  This conference provides excellent, informative presentations by local, state, national, and international experts, continuing education credits for a variety of professions, and a great opportunity to network with colleagues and make new friends!"

For more information, please click here.  

Dedicated to improving the public health through a better understanding of zoonoses and environmentally-acquired infectious diseases.