One Health Movement News / One Health Topics 'in' the News

In a Memorandum of Understanding, FAO, OIE and WHO agreed to strengthen their long-standing partnership, with a  focus on tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Report  

Today, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have released their second Tripartite strategic document reaffirming their commitment to providing multi-sectoral, collaborative leadership in addressing health challenges. The scope of their collaboration will be enlarged to more broadly embrace the “One Health” approach recognizing that human health, animal health, and the environment are interconnected.

Excerpt: "

WHO, partners and affected countries are stepping up planning for how to use an Ebola vaccine in response to an outbreak.

The Ebola outbreak that struck Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in 2014 prompted the search, on an exceptionally accelerated schedule, for a vaccine to prevent the disease.

Although there has been more than one promising candidate, the vesicular stomatitis virus-ebola virus (VSV-EBOV) vaccine was selected based on an algorithm produced by the WHO Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee on Ebola Experimental Interventions for the critical Phase III trial in Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The committee considered various parameters, including efficacy in non-human primates the ability to provoke an immune response in humans in the early days after vaccination, and availability."

The main message emerging from this new comprehensive global assessment is that premature death and disease can be prevented through healthier environments – and to a significant degree.

"The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued an initial list of diseases needing urgent research attention to prevent severe outbreaks. This list, which includes Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever, Ebola and Marburg virus diseases, Lassa fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus diseases, Nipah, and Rift Valley fever, is expected to be a key element in the WHO Research and Development (R&D) Blueprint for infectious diseases with epidemic potential currently under development for presentation in May 2016 at the 69th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland."

"With increasing evidence of health risks associated with climate change, the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a publication, titled ‘Operational framework for building climate resilient health systems.' The framework, geared towards public health professionals and health managers, is also meant to support decision-makers and development agencies working in the areas of nutrition, water and sanitation, and emergency management, public health, health system strengthening and climate change adaptation.
read more: http://climate-l.iisd.org/news/who-launches-framework-for-building-climate-resilient-health-systems/

Read full PDF: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/189951/1/9789241565073_eng.pdf

The vision of this seminal publication in One Health history is to create "A world capable of preventing, detecting, containing, eliminating, and responding to animal and public health risks attributable to zoonoses and animal diseases with an impact on food security through multi-sectoral cooperation and strong partnerships."

This concept note focuses on  "Sharing responsibilities and coordinating global activities to address health risks at the animal-human-ecosystems interfaces" published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO). 

At a Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt the OIE, WHO and FAO, often referred to as the One Health Tripartite,  presented a consensus document on global measures needed to coordinate medical and veterinary health policies more effectively, taking into account new requirements to prevent and control zoonoses. (with the support of UNICEF, the UN System Influenza Coordinator [UNSIC] and the World Bank).