One Health: Leveraging Connections to Improve World Well-Being

What is One Health?

The connection between humans, the environment, and animals has long been recognized. What if we could use those connections to find cures, eradicate diseases, and improve human, animal, and environmental health? That's exactly what the One Health Initiative strives to do.

The initiative began after an article written by Dr. Laura H Kahn in 2006 prompted veterinarians and other medical professionals to come together in collaboration against diseases affecting both humans and animals (zoonotic diseases). Well known zoonotic diseases include avian influenza ("bird flu"), West Nile virus, COVID-19, and food borne illness. A close working relationship between veterinary, medical, and public health professionals in studying and monitoring these diseases can reduce the impact of both infectious diseases and non-contagious diseases.

What has One Health Achieved?

Since its official founding in 2008, the One Health concept of integrated veterinary and human medicine has become a global cooperation between medical institutions, universities, governments, and major companies to improve world health. In Northern Namibia, a new initiative to combat rabies was put in motion in 2015. Using mobile apps to record and track dog vaccination data and mapping technologies to estimate human and dog populations in the vast areas, veterinarians and public health officials were able to vaccinate the majority of dogs. Oral vaccines were used to protect feral dogs which could not be caught for traditional injections. Rabies cases in humans fell from an average of 25 per year in 2015 to 0-2 cases per year in 2022.

What Does the Future Hold?

New tools in the fight against cancer are among the exciting advancements being sought by researchers using the One Health concept. Scientists and veterinarians at Purdue University are studying new ways to predict bladder cancer progression in dogs with the aim to help human patients in the future. Dogs have more in common than just drinking the same water and breathing the same air as their humans; they also share 85% of human genetic makeup and have similar immune systems. These similarities, paired with the speed and flexibility of animal clinical trials, make dogs and veterinarians key partners in the advancement of cancer diagnosis and treatment in humans.

In addition to tackling long-battled diseases like cancer, One Health initiatives around the world will continue to play an important role in addressing infectious disease outbreaks. Monitoring the health of animal populations and quickly recognizing and addressing disease outbreaks not only prevents future pandemics in people, it preserves health and life among the animals that help the environment operate.

Sources

1. Kaplan B. History of the One Health Initiative team and website (April 2006 through September 2015) and the One Health Initiative website since October 1, 2008 … revised to June 2020, February 2021 and again to date August 2022. One Health Initiative. Published August 10, 2022. https://onehealthinitiative.com/history-of-the-one-health-initiative-team-and-website-april-2006-through-september-2015-and-the-one-health-initiative-website-since-october-1-2008-revised-to-june-2020-february-2021-and/

2. Namibia utilises One Health for rabies control including oral rabies vaccines for dogs. Who.int. Published September 20, 2022. https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/namibia-utilises-one-health-for-rabies-control-including-oral-rabies-vaccines-for-dogs

3. Namibia’s battle against rabies: a One Health success story  - WOAH. WOAH - World Organisation for Animal Health. Published September 28, 2023. https://www.woah.org/en/article/namibias-battle-against-rabies-a-one-health-success-story/

4. One Health: A “digital twin” model for predicting cancer outcomes. Purdue.edu. Published 2025. Accessed June 6, 2025. https://www.purdue.edu/research/features/stories/one-health-a-digital-twin-model-for-predicting-cancer-outcomes/

5. Mingus L. One Health. One Cancer. One Cure. - Flint Animal Cancer Center. Flint Animal Cancer Center. Published January 23, 2020. Accessed June 6, 2025. https://www.csuanimalcancercenter.org/2020/01/23/one-health-one-cancer-one-cure/

   
   

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