Compelling arguments
- Localización: Veterinary Record, ISSN-e 2042-7670, Vol. 176, Nº. 12, 2015, págs. 292-292
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
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Resumen
‘ONE Health’ has become a bit of a buzzword over the past 12 months and Veterinary Record may have to take some of the blame for that. The upside is that it looks as if progress may be beginning to be made. That things are indeed happening was clear at the 3rd International One Health Congress held in Amsterdam this week. The congress – by no means the only conference on the subject taking place this year – was notable in bringing together scientists and policymakers with an interest in One Health, with a view to seeing how the concept might be more widely applied. Lessons from the ongoing outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, and frustration about the world's lack of preparedness for that outbreak, provided an extra edge to the proceedings.
The significance of One Health to policymakers was highlighted during a programme on the first day of the congress considering the ‘science-policy interface’. With discussion of the impact of diseases ranging from BSE to SARS to avian influenza, this illustrated the value of a collaborative, preventive approach not just in terms of safeguarding public health but economically as well. Antimicrobial resistance was another area where a combined approach was clearly necessary. There was, it was argued, a need for more effective global leadership in relation to One Health, and for professional and disciplinary ‘silos’ to be broken down. Changing mindsets and persuading people to relinquish professional ownership of certain areas is notoriously difficult but, it was argued, progress could be made by training the next generation to think more broadly.
