Huffington Post – July 25, 2015

The Age of Contagion

“... This moment in time demands that scientists and health-care workers move beyond the boundaries of their professions and adopt a One Health mindset to match the scale and complexity of human and animal health needs. Nothing less is acceptable. Our world hangs in the balance as we race to come to grips with our new microbial mysteries in labs around the world.”

By *Lonnie J. King, DVM, MS, MPA - Former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) new National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne and Enteric Diseases (NCZVED) and current Dean and Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University (USA)

 

“Grim predictions of infectious diseases have been with us as long as recorded history. As author David Quammen remarked in a recent New York Times editorial, our once sunny optimism that modern miracle antibodies would stop modern-day plagues has proven to be mistaken.

Scary new viral diseases such as MERS, SARS, Monkeypox and the West Nile virus are merely the latest examples of zoonotic diseases -- those passed from animals to humans -- which are now responsible for almost 75 percent of new human infectious diseases over the last quarter century. ...

... This moment in time demands that scientists and health-care workers move beyond the boundaries of their professions and adopt a One Health mindset to match the scale and complexity of human and animal health needs. Nothing less is acceptable. Our world hangs in the balance as we race to come to grips with our new microbial mysteries in labs around the world.”

Please read complete blog http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-lonnie-j-king/the-age-of-contagion_b_4226828.html

*Dr. King, a veterinarian, is a longstanding, extraordinary international One Health leader and member of the One Health Initiative Honorary Advisory Board http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/advBoard.php.