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One Health “a possible way forward”... Andrew Read, PhD, Pennsylvania State University (USA) Ethical considerations in an era of mass drug administration   Parasites & Vectors 2013, 6:234 doi:10.1186/1756-3305-6-234 Barney Wharam Barney.Wharam@bristol.ac.uk Luke Lazarou Luke.Lazarou@bristol.ac.uk   Abstract In a Plenary debate at the 51st Spring meeting of the British Society of Parasitology, Bristol, UK, April 8–11, 2013, the bioethicist James Wilson used the value of a life in the present and future to question the effectiveness of current health strategies.   “...The emerging problem of antibiotic resistance was used as a current, real world example of drug resistance by both Wilson and Andrew Read (Pennsylvania State University).   Read illustrated the problems of drug resistance through his recent visit to a Michigan hospital, where patients are dying from “superbugs” - bacteria that are resistant to many or all antibiotics that are available. Patients alive now are put into jeopardy because of actions from the past. Antibiotic resistance demonstrates how past health care policies did not sufficiently account for the evolution of parasites and therefore discounted the value of future lives inappropriately.   Read argued that there is a lack of research on how to use drugs whilst minimising the evolution of drug resistance. Drug resistance is also a key issue in veterinary science and the fields of human and veterinary medicine have become so distinct that veterinary studies are rarely used to inform human medicine. Movements such as The One Health Initiative (http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/index.php) were highlighted by Read as a possible way forward. The initiative aims to improve global healthcare through interdisciplinary collaborations. ...”   http://www.parasitesandvectors.com/content/pdf/1756-3305-6-234.pdf