One Health Initiative Task Force Makes Progress Toward Goal Of Uniting Human And Animal Health
"The tremendous, dedicated effort displayed at the first meeting of the One Health Initiative Task Force was very gratifying," said immediate-past AVMA President Dr. Roger K. Mahr, who made the One Health Initiative his AVMA presidential platform in July of 2006. "It is evident that the AVMA has assembled a nucleus of some of the most visionary individuals within the country with not only an appreciation for the One Health concept, but with a strong commitment to make that concept become a reality."
The One Health Initiative started out as a proposal of the AVMA in 2006 to encourage better cooperation between veterinary medicine and medicine, including participation of schools, industry, associations and individual practitioners. A year later, the American Medical Association (AMA) moved to support the One Health Initiative, and the AVMA selected task force members for the initiative.
Dr. Ronald M. Davis, MD, president of AMA, was in attendance at the task force meeting as the AMA liaison.
"The task force made good progress toward defining the scope of the One Health Initiative and developing high-priority strategies to improve the health of humans, animals, and the environment," said Dr. Davis. "Cooperation between the human and animal medical professions is especially important in today's global health environment.
"Working together, we can enhance public health communications and education to prevent the spread of diseases across species and improve the health of humans and animals alike." Dr. Davis said.
Task Force Chair Lonnie J. King, DVM, DACVPM, director of strategy and innovation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University, said that in just the first meeting of the One Health Initiative Task Force a great deal was accomplished.
"The OHITF is off to an excellent start. During the first meeting the group agreed on a working definition of One Health and its vision; discussed the critical need for multidisciplinary and collaborative teams; and reviewed where the concept works well and where more needs to be done to promote the concept," said Dr. King. "By the end of our second meeting, we will have completed the framework of a comprehensive report with final recommendations and actions that will support and sustain One Health and encourage the veterinary profession to take a leadership role that ensures both the acceptance of the concept and its central purpose of improving the health of humans, animals and the environment on a global basis."
Zoonotic disease, diseases that strike both humans and animals, are perhaps the clearest inspiration for the One Health Initiative. Of the 35 new diseases that have struck since 1980, most are zoonotic diseases, including Ebola virus, monkey pox, West Nile virus, SARS, and HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS has killed an estimated 25 million people since it was first identified in 1981 and 40 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS.
"One Health is both a vision and a practicality that is so necessary and needed," said Jay H Glasser, PhD, MS, FFPH,FRIPH, the American Public Health Association liaison. Dr. Glasser is a professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health and president of the Medicine and Public Health Initiative. "We live in an age of an unprecedented explosion of health care knowledge, and health promotion and practice interventions. Yet it is also a time of equally enormous gaps in delivery and challenges to the human and animal health. In this age of our interconnected world where both local and global conditions interact with one another, where we are forcefully reminded that we are the custodians of our health and environment, One Health is indeed the embodiment of an 'idea whose time has come.' One Health is more than a concept; it is positive plan, and an organization to provide leadership and coordinated action to promote health - human, and animal - in today's context where environmental and ecological sustainability is threatened."
Task Force members include Carina G. Blackmore, Florida state public health veterinarian; Michael J. Blackwell, dean of the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine; Elizabeth A. Lautner, director of the National Veterinary Services Laboratories; Leonard C. Marcus of Travelers' Health and Immunization Services; James E. Nave, AVMA globalization monitoring agent; Marguerite Pappaioanou, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health; Rear Adm. William S. Stokes, assistant surgeon general; Student AVMA President Justin Sobota; Thomas P. Monath, MD, of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, and Byers; medical student Travis E. Meyer; and Jöerg Ohle, president and general manager of Bayer HealthCare LLC's Animal Health Division.
For more information about the AVMA and the One Health Initiative, please visit the AVMA at http://www.avma.org.
Un Sãnãtate Iniþiativa Task Force Face Progresul spre obiectivul de a Unificarea sãnãtãþii umane ºi animale - One Health Initiative Task Force Makes Progress Toward Goal Of Uniting Human And Animal Health - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate