One Health to Cure the World
This article gives a brief account of a global approach aimed to achieve optimal health for humans, the rest of the animals and the global ecosystems of Earth, something very much needed these days.
If the COVID-19 crisis is showing us something these days is how much our world and nature are interconnected, as well as how much our wellness depends on environmental health.
Although a highly intelligent species, humans are not a kind of superior entity but an animal more, with all its implied corporeal limitations, inhabiting a fragile planet. We are part of a common natural environment whose ecosystems -and the biodiversity they sustain- provide nothing less than the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat, among other aspects.
“Biodiversity, ecosystems and the essential services that they deliver are central pillars for all life on the planet, including human life. They are sources of food and essential nutrients, medicines and medicinal compounds, fuel, energy, livelihoods and cultural and spiritual enrichment. They also contribute to the provision of clean water and air, and perform critical functions that range from the regulation of pests and disease to that of climate change and natural disasters.” (1)
Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Former Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (United Nations)
By definition, the term ecosystem refers to one of the highest biological levels of organization, formed by communities of animals, plants and other living things, which -directly or indirectly- interact with each other and with their surrounding environment (e.g. weather, soil and atmosphere) in a shared space. In these complex ecological systems, every organism has a role to play and many of them produce goods and services -known as ecosystem services- that support and enhance both our physical and mental health (2). As a result, conserving biodiversity is not only important to preserve nature and wildlife itself, but also to care about ourselves and the future generations in the long-term.
“All aspects of human wellbeing depend on ecosystem goods and services, which in turn depend on biodiversity. Biodiversity loss can destabilize ecosystems, promote outbreaks of infectious disease, and undermine development progress, nutrition security and protection from natural disasters.” (1)
Maria Neira, Director of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health (World Health Organization)
During the past few years, especially as a result of the increasing number of zoonotic disease outbreaks, there has been a growing recognition of the need to embrace holistic and interdisciplinary global health approaches that do not only take into account humans but also the Earth, with its natural ecosystems and biodiversity. In particular, the so-called One Health approach endorsed by several international agencies (e.g. the WHO, the FAO and the CDC), represents a recent movement with a lot of potential to catalyze a systematic change throughout the world. (3, 4)
Overall, the One Health strategy is based on the development, implementation and support of policies seeking to obtain optimal health not only for humans but also for the rest of animals, plants and their shared global environment. It does so through the interdisciplinary and multisectoral collaboration between a broad range of experts (e.g. physicians, biologists, veterinarians, agriculturalists, epidemiologists, etc.), as that is the only way to better understand and address issues at the complex human-animal-environment interface (4, 5).
The multidisciplinary cooperation between different scientific fields, both in terms of advisory and research, lies at the core of One Health. Originally, such collaborative effort was mainly focused on the health and veterinary sciences, along with their various related disciplines. However, over the past few years, the scientific community has called for a widening of the concept so as to also include other areas such as ecology, climate change and biodiversity (4).
Recently, it has been suggested that this global health approach should incorporate the broader “planetary” vision of the closely-related EcoHealth and Planetary Health frameworks, in order to encompass both local and global problems and thus facilitate the achievement of a sustainable world for all (3).
Though One Health and Planetary Health might differ in some of their specific values and core focus (4), they share an exact same essence. Namely, that humans, the rest of species and the different ecosystems they are part of are inextricably connected, so if we want to protect one of them, we should also protect the other.
Ultimately, at the most basic level, the human race is totally dependent on the inner correct functioning of nature, along with its provision of ecosystem services. Unfortunately, as we are glimpsing these days, the negative effects of not protecting ecosystems and biodiversity can be very severe. Thus, there is an urgent need to leave behind the nearsighted short-term trends that we humans have inexorably embraced, with a mode of production and way of living that does not bear ecosystems and biodiversity in mind at all.
In this regard, a planetary One Health aiming to reach everyone while at the same time caring about the natural world holds the potential to be a real paradigm shift, thus an investment in such an approach would definitely be one of the best strategies we can adopt. Certainly, we are still on time to act and devote more effort to implement the necessary changes, which governments should hurry to do, and rightly so. After all, we are intrinsically linked to Earth, and failing to protect even the smallest of the ecosystem services can easily become one of the highest human disservices.
To know more about this, you can have a look at the following infographic:
Thanks to our culture, science and technology, we humans are able to buffer against the harsh environmental change (2). However, this is only effective to a certain extent, as the safe operating space for humanity can be easily surpassed. Indeed, back in 2009, scientists even suggested that three out of nine key planetary boundaries have already been overstepped (6).
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
References
1. Romanelli C, Cooper D, Campbell-Lendrum D, Maiero M, B. Karesh W, Hunter D, et al. Connecting Global Priorities: Biodiversity and Human Health. A State of Knowledge Review. World Health Organization and Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity; 2015.
2. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington, DC.
3. Rabinowitz PM, Pappaioanou M, Bardosh KL, Conti L. A planetary vision for one health. BMJ Global Health. 2018 Oct;3(5):e001137.
4. Lerner H, Berg C. A Comparison of Three Holistic Approaches to Health: One Health, EcoHealth, and Planetary Health. Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 2017 Sep 29;4.
5. Rojan Dahal LK. Zoonotic Diseases and One Health Approach. Epidemiology: 2014;04 (02).
6. Rockström J, Steffen W, Noone K, Persson Å, Chapin FS, Lambin EF, et al. A safe operating space for humanity. Nature. 2009 Sep;461(7263):472–5.
