News

Medical experts have a plan to prevent next epidemic –it’s called ‘One Health’

·        Health groups have a model to help prevent epidemics, using lessons learned from wildlife outbreaks

·        Approach requires collaboration among all health disciplines and governments

Simone McCarthy

Published: 12:59pm, 23 Apr, 2020

SEE: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3081192/medical-experts-have-plan-prevent-next-epidemic-its-called-one

“... *Gregory Gray [MD, MPH], a professor of infectious diseases from Duke University in the United States, runs the Duke One Health Network, which works on One Health-based research and training projects around the world.

Gray is calling for Covid-19 testing to be done not only in laboratory settings but in meat production facilities where animals may be more stressed and already have other respiratory diseases, potentially making them more vulnerable.

“What if [the virus] is silently causing infections and being amplified in pork or poultry production?” he said. “What if Sars-CoV-2 [the coronavirus] is silently multiplying in pigs and causing farmers to be at increased risk? We don’t know, but it’s something we would like to look at and rule out, and to do so we need to employ a One Health technique.”

In the past two decades, One Health has created more of an awareness of these intersections between human, animal and environmental health, and helped build connections across fields, experts say. But problems often arise at government levels when bureaucrats focus on protecting their own turf. ...”

*Dr. Gray is a member of the One Health Initiative Advisory Board http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/advBoard.php