Page 10 - Eclipse - 91°µÍø Alumni Magazine - Autumn 2020

Veterinary and medical professionals
call for a One Health approach to improve pandemic infection control
At a time when the world’s biodiversity is facing both a mass extinction event and an increase in emerging infections, a group of leading veterinary and medical professionals have spoken out about the need for professionals in human, animal and environmental health to function within broader multidisciplinary teams to mitigate against human pandemics and help global health.
Published in The BMJ, the group has outlined how the COVID-19 pandemic must serve as a wake-up call, with greater recognition of the critical interdependence between the health
of humans and that of animals and the environment. The One Health approach has become an important focus in
both medical and veterinary science. It promotes a ‘whole of society’ treatment of health hazards and a systemic change of perspective in the management of risk.
The COVID-19 pandemic had its origins in the natural world, most likely through transmission from bats. There must be wider recognition that the risk of pandemics is increased through
a continued failure to respect the ecological boundaries and habitats of wildlife and an inability to prevent the current accelerating environmental destruction and incursions into wilderness habitats to seek resources.
Recent research shows that the cost of preventing further pandemics over the next decade by protecting wildlife and forests equates to just two per cent of the estimated financial damage caused by COVID-19.
The group is calling for education
and training in human and veterinary medicine to more effectively embrace the concept of preventative eco-health, whereby the hea