This great project, called “A health” and whose first five-year action plan (2022-2026) was published today, it must also make it possible to promote the sustainable development of the planet.
This cooperation is “essential to address global health threats such as monkeypox, Covid-19 and Ebola”, the four organizations involved in the project, the World Organization for Animal Health (WHO), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Program for Environment (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Organizations start from the observation that large-scale deforestation, intensive agriculture, soil degradation and biodiversity loss, among other factors, threaten the integrity of ecosystems and pose greater health risks at the level of the human-animal-plant-environment interface, which particularly affect the most vulnerable communities.
These risks are exacerbated by increasing urbanization, unsustainable modes of production and consumption, poor waste management, increased travel and trade, pollution … so many changes in human behavior that offer many opportunities for pathogens to colonize new territories and evolve into new forms that can be dangerous for everyone.
For UNEP executive director Inger Andersen, the Covid-19 pandemic “it unequivocally demonstrates that the degradation of nature involves health risks in all sectors”.
“Everyone has the right to a clean and healthy environment – the foundation of all life on Earth”, added in the statement.
One of the goals is to increase surveillance to detect threats faster and thus be able to help authorities prevent future health crises and respond better to them.
75% of emerging human pathogens are of animal origin
Covid-19 revealed how difficult it can be to find the origin of a virus. But more than two years after the start of the pandemic, two studies published at the end of July in the prestigious journal Science concluded that it started in the market in Wuhan city, China, thus indicating a very likely animal origin of the virus. A theory questioned by the proponents of the theory of an escape from a laboratory in the city.
However, according to WHO, 75% of emerging human pathogens are of animal origin.
Managing global health risks cannot be the responsibility of a single actor and instead requires the full cooperation of the animal, human and ecosystem health sectors, experts say.
“It is clear that the One Health approach must be at the heart of our joint work to strengthen the world’s defenses against epidemics and pandemics, such as Covid-19”, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted on the statement.
This approach is also “one of the guiding principles” of the new international pandemic agreement that WHO member states are negotiating, he said.
The action plan will be officially presented on Tuesday at an international health conference in Berlin.
It focuses on support and capacity building in six areas: health systems, emerging and re-emerging zoonotic epidemics, endemic zoonoses, tropical and vector-borne diseases (e.g. mosquito-borne malaria), food security risks, antimicrobial resistance and environment.
The goal is to build sustainable health and food systems, reduce threats to global health and improve ecosystem management.
“The One Health initiative should start with good land management and stop deforestation”, FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu assured.
With AFP
