One Health: The health of humans and animals belongs together
Scientific analyses show that five new infectious diseases are discovered in humans every year. Most diseases that occur for the first time or recur in humans originate from animals. Prominent examples include the most severe Ebola epidemic to date in West Africa from 2014 to 2016, the lung disease SARS, which was discovered 20 years ago, and the outbreak of BSE («mad cow disease») in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s. Consequently, collaboration between veterinary medicine, human medicine and environmental science is urgently needed.
The term «One Health» has been coined for this holistic approach. As part of this approach, experts from government agencies and the scientific community are working together to uncover connections and maintain the health of humans and animals in an intact ecosystem by means of suitable measures. At an international level, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) are collaborating jointly. In Switzerland, four of the federal agencies concerned and further partners founded the «One Health» platform in 2017. One historical forerunner is the US veterinary epidemiologist Calvin Schwabe, who in the 1960s worked towards close cooperation between animal and human medicine using the term «One Medicine».
- Sixty per cent of pathogens in humans originate in animals.
- Five new infectious diseases are discovered in humans each ear.
- Twenty per cent of the losses in animal production worldwide are the result of epidemics.
- Source: European Commission, World Organisation for Animal Health