Medical experts have a plan to prevent next epidemic – it’s called ‘One Health’
- Health groups have already learned lessons from previous outbreaks involving animals
- But approach requires more collaboration between disciplines and across governments
The cause? Possibly a half-eaten piece of fruit – plucked from an orchard, nibbled by a flying fox bat carrying the virus, coated with pathogens in its saliva, before being dropped into a nearby pig pen.
But an increasing number of health professionals and organisations believe there is a public policy model to reduce this circumstantial risk, a preventive approach known as “One Health”.
It is a public health strategy that recognises the growing threat from new animal viruses is linked to human economic expansion and taps the combined expertise of livestock and wildlife veterinary surgeons, conservationists and ecologists, along with medical doctors and researchers, to tackle it.
“It’s the preventive medicine perspective – stopping problems earlier, rather than dealing with the consequences,” said Steve Osofsky, a professor of wildlife health and health policy at Cornell University.