Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Column...

The One Health solution

By Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP | 27 September 2012

"The popular press is finally recognizing the important connections among human, animal, and environmental health. Environmental destruction, global trade and travel, intensive agriculture, and other human activities all lead to the emergence of previously unknown microbes that can infect across species, causing zoonotic disease outbreaks like West Nile virus, avian influenza, hantavirus, HIV/AIDS, and others. No wonder the media is paying attention.

These zoonotic diseases typically emerge from wildlife and occasionally from domestic animals. Most bioterrorism agents, as recognized by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are zoonotic as well. Think: anthrax, plague, tularemia, the viral hemorrhagic fevers, brucellosis, glanders, psittacosis, Q fever. Adequately addressing these emerging infectious diseases and bioterrorism agents requires a new interdisciplinary approach -- a "One Health" approach.

The One Health movement (which I support and participate in) is based on ..."

READ MORE: http://thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/laura-h-kahn/the-one-health-solution 

 

 

Dr. Kahn is a member of the One Health Initiative Autonomous pro bono Team: Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP ▪ Bruce Kaplan, DVM ▪ Thomas P. Monath, MD ▪ Jack Woodall, PhD ▪ Lisa A. Conti, DVM, MPH