All for One, One Health for All

If you’re like a lot of folks and the health threats of COVID-19 have prompted you to develop a side specialty in public health, you’ve already acquired the foundation for understanding One Health and how the health of people is connected to the health of animals and the shared environment.

To learn more about One Health – and the part we can play in promoting this multidisciplinary approach to global problems like the pandemic – we turned to Iowa State’s resident expert on the subject: Dr. Claire Andreasen, professor and director of One Health in Iowa State’s College of Veterinary Medicine, and the Dr. Roger and Marilyn Mahr Professor in One Health.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up to 75 percent of new or emerging infectious diseases in people are spread by animals, including SARS, MERS and now COVID-19. Why are these diseases on the rise?
Human beings have entered areas of the environment that bring them into closer contact with animals, exposing both humans and animals to previously seldom encountered diseases that sometimes can adapt to a different species. Stressors on human populations, wildlife and the environment can give rise to changes in disease patterns. Add to that modern rapid transportation of people, animals and plants, and associated products, and you see how quickly emerging infectious diseases can become disseminated.

What is One Health, and how would you place the current pandemic in the context of One Health?
One Health is an approach to solving problems in any discipline, since the three major components – human, animal and environmental health – are completely integrated and shared. A core principle is communication, cooperation and collaboration across disciplines and sectors. Since each impacts the other, solutions to global grand challenges that affect everyone on the planet must involve all three major components to achieve optimal health, sustainability and well-being. The analogy is a three-legged stool: If one leg is removed, broken or in disrepair, the stool is unstable. Understanding the current pandemic will be accomplished by understanding the contribution of all three aspects: The presence of SARS CoV2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – in animal populations, how SARS CoV2 is transmitted to people and between people, and what environmental factors were present to escalate the disease emergence to a pandemic, to name a few.

What can people do individually or as part of a community to promote a One Health approach that will ultimately address such health threats?
Everyone can contribute to One Health by recognizing their impact as an individual on other people, animals and the environment, and by gaining a general understanding of sustaining each for optimal health. Furthermore, universities have an important role in promoting our understanding based in scientific data and factual evidence, and our responsibilities via the social and behavioral sciences. There will always be a need for implementing science and technology in providing solutions to the complex interdependent challenges the world faces.