News
If the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us one difficult lesson, it’s this---we, humans, should promote harmony with the other species of Earth as well as protect our global environment if we’re to avoid these horrific events in the future. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". While specific interventions can be initially effective, the toxic solutions and anti-microbials we use against pathogenic invaders will inevitably lead to the development of resistance and/or significant destruction of beneficial species. Specifically, our wide-spread use of antibiotics and insecticides over the past few decades, has resulted in super bugs (bacteria as well as insects) that no longer can be eliminated by their routine use. Further, although vaccines are an excellent way to protect us from a known bug, they are by design very specific and new ones must be developed each time (at enormous cost) a dangerous bacteria or virus spills over to humans.
But, even more important, what we have learned is that our approach to ensuring human, animal, plant and environmental wellness cannot occur in silos. Teams of scientists, health care providers and policy makers must come together to develop best solutions for all of the issues that confront us---spanning from global warming to prevention of invasive species that destroy crops or transmit diseases to humans and other animals. With this framework, the New Jersey One Health Steering Committee worked with the NJ legislation to provide the evidence for and encourage them to commence a multidisciplinary One Health task force committee. The task force will facilitate discussion among all disciplines such that short- and long-term solutions that promote a natural balance in nature and better health for all will result.
Comments submitted to the One Health Initiative team, August 4, 2021 by Drs. Gloria Bachman and Dina Fonseca:
Gloria A Bachmann, MD, MMS
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Medicine
Associate Dean for Women's Health
Director, Women's Health Institute (WHI)
Medical Director of the PROUD Gender Center of NJ
NJ Commission on Women's Reentry-Chair of Health Committee
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
125 Paterson Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
email: bachmaga@rutgers.edu
and
Dina M. Fonseca, PhD
Professor, Entomology, Ecology&Evolution, Microbiology
SEBS, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Director, Rutgers Center for Vector Biology
NJ Agriculture Experiment Station
180 Jones Ave. New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Email: dina.fonseca@rutgers.edu
Lab webspage: https://Fonseca-Lab.com
Center webpage: https://vectorbio.rutgers.edu
Quick Links
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Please see MONOGRAPH in Veterinaria Italiana
“One Health – One Medicine”: linking human, animal and environmental health
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History of the One Health Initiative team and website (April 2006 through September 2015) and the One Health Initiative website since October 1, 2008 … revised to June 2020 and again to date February 2021
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Vaccines for zoonoses: a One Health paradigm
SciTech Europa Quarterly (March 2018) – Issue 26
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Pan European Networks SciTech Europa Quarterly
SciTech Europa Vaccines for zoonoses: a one Health paradigm – Pages 227-229 (Read PDF) “One of the One Health Initiative team’s co-founders and leaders is an internationally-recognized eminent physician…
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