News

One Health approach implementation supported...

Hudson Institute Report

NATIONAL BLUEPRINT FOR BIODEFENSE:AND MAJRORM

BIPARTISAN REPORT OF THE BLUE RIBBON

STUDY PANEL ON BIODEFENSE

Released October 28, 2015

Report in full: http://www.biodefensestudy.org/SiteAssets/Pages/default/1425-2139_BRSP_Report_100815b%5b1%5d%5b6%5d.pdf 

TABLE 1: RECOMMENDATIONS AND ACTION ITEMS

Integrate animal health and One Health approaches into biodefense strategies.

Recommendation 7

a Institutionalize One Health.

b Develop a nationally notifiable animal disease system.

c Prioritize emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.

III. RECOGNIZING AND INSTITUTIONALIZING

THE ONE HEALTH CONCEPT

See pages 19 & 20

“...A One Health approach can also inform priorities for human infectious diseases. When it became clear in 2014 that no countermeasures for Ebola were ready for the largest Ebola outbreak the world had ever seen, many policy conversations that followed were about priorities. We must have a means of determining what to fund with finite resources. The threats and risks among agents of both bioterror and emerging infectious diseases are equally serious. MTDs have been very important for the prioritization of activities around biodefense, yet there is no analogous prioritization system for emerging diseases....”

“Recommendation 7 –[See page 21]

Integrate animal health and One Health approaches into biodefense strategies. Effective solutions for defense against emerging infectious disease and bioterror

threats lie at the interface of human, animal, and environmental health.

ACTION ITEMS:

a. Institutionalize One Health. The White House should lead all relevant agencies to a new level of understanding, planning, and operating with respect to biodefense that includes an animal health and, more broadly, a One Health mindset. The Vice President

should direct the NSC to review all strategic biodefense documents to ensure that animal health and environmental health agencies are identified and assigned responsibility, and that their activities are fully aligned and coordinated with other biodefense activities and are current with respect to new science and evidence.

b. Develop a nationally notifiable animal disease system. The Administrator of the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), working with the Director of the Department of the Interior (DOI) U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other partners as appropriate, should develop a nationally notifiable animal disease list and implement a reporting system for states, localities, territories, tribes, and other owners of disease information. USDA should afford DHS, HHS, and other agencies engaged in biodefense access to the data in this system.

c. Prioritize emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in coordination with the Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of Defense, should prioritize emerging infectious disease threats. They should consider using a multi-criteria decision analysis tool and transparent methodology to develop these determinations. They should address pathogens and

pathogen families with the potential to cause a catastrophic public health emergency sufficient to affect national security, including agents known to infect wildlife and domestic animals. The list should drive funding in surveillance, response planning, MCM development, and any activities revealed as gaps per action item 3e.”