Is One Health delivering results? Introduction.

Abstract

The One Health concept is responsible for a shift towards practices, policies and partnerships that better link the health of people, animals and our shared environments. The papers in this issue of the World Organisation for Animal Health Scientific and Technical Review illustrate a myriad of ways in which a One Health approach could advance or has already advanced human and animal well-being. Independently, the authors conducted their own thematic analysis of One Health activities and found strong support for the notion that One Health has inspired a renaissance in veterinary public health, increased our basic knowledge of the mechanisms and natural history of many animal diseases, promoted systems approaches to health issues and encouraged stronger cross-sectoral collaboration. Unfortunately, many collaborations often end when funding ends and many remain distinct partnerships. One Health still suffers from a lack of strong environmental stakeholders and has mostly worked on infectious disease rather than addressing many of the pressing determinants of health that will confront us in the next century. There is no shared conception of health across veterinary, medical and environment sectors, and this is an issue that must be confronted if there are to be programmes that are truly integrated across people, animals and the environment.