One Health - for a healthy future of humans, animals and the environment

What is it about?

‘One Health is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals, and ecosystems. It recognizes that the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants and their shared environment (including ecosystems) are closely linked and interconnected.’ This has once more been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this crisis the One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) has been created by the four global organizations WHO (World Health Organization), FAO (UN Organization for Food and Agriculture), WOAH (World Organization for Animal Health) and UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) to advise on issues related with One Health. As a first step, OHHLEP devised a novel and comprehensive definition of ‘One Health’ including five key underlying principles to promote One Health activities across different sectors and disciplines. This new definition is inclusive rather than exclusive and has widely been accepted and applauded.

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Why is it important?

This novel definition of One Health gives the broad systems-based perspective and encompasses other integrated health approaches such as global, eco and planetary health. It is an overarching definition of 'One Health'.

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