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One Health approach is essential!   How to fight MERS and other zoonotic diseases *Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP, columnist - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists  “Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which has sickened at least 495 people, killed 141, and now popped up in the United States, has much in common with other recent outbreaks, including SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which killed some 775 patients in 2002 and 2003: They can spread rapidly across borders, stir up fear in the public, and be transmitted from human to human. The most important shared characteristic of ailments like MERS, SARS, Ebola, avian influenza, West Nile virus, and even diseases of bioterrorism like anthrax, though, is the fact that they are zoonotic: That is, they originate in animals and then spread to humans. And this fact points the way to fighting them. Only through a “One Health” approach, which treats human and animal health as all part of the same system, can they be prevented. …” Please read entire column by clicking this link http://thebulletin.org/how-fight-mers-and-other-zoonotic-diseases7159 or the attached HTM view.   *Dr. Kahn, a physician, is a founding member of the One Health Initiative team/One Health Initiative website.  She is also a widely published internationally renowned One Health leader and expert on the subject.