Connecting Humans, Animals, and Ecosystems
The connection between animal and human health was recognized even in ancient times; later, nineteenth-century physician Rudolf Virchow coined the term "zoonosis," writing that "between animal and human medicine there are no dividing lines—nor should there be." In the late twentieth century epidemiologist Calvin Schwabe first proposed the idea of "One Medicine" encompassing both human and animal health. But medicine has since lost sight of the forest for the trees, now even to the point of focusing on individual leaves, says Laura Kahn, a physician and research scholar at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
"A schism has been developing in medicine for decades," Kahn says: Should it focus strictly on individual care or more broad-based population-level health? Shortly after the anthrax attacks following 9/11, Kahn was reading the veterinary medicine literature and found herself struck by how many diseases of bioterrorism are—like anthrax—zoonotic. "Yet I discovered that [people working in] veterinary and human medicine and agriculture rarely talk to one another," she says. "We're trying to deal with new twenty-first-century challenges using outdated twentieth-century paradigms."
With West Nile encephalitis, SARS, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, swine flu, and other zoonotic diseases popping up regularly in recent decades, scientists and medical practitioners have taken notice. In 2004 the Wildlife Conservation Society held the One World, One Health conference to bring together leaders from various disciplines; it culminated in the 12 Manhattan Principles, which urged world leaders, scientists, and society to more holistically consider the interrelationship between zoonotic diseases and ecosystems. Since then, more researchers have begun explicitly addressing how the dramatic changes happening to the Earth's ecosystems affect human health. In 2008 Kahn cofounded the One Health Initiative website, a clearinghouse for news and publications related to the movement.
Perhaps even more than in the United States, people living in developing countries recognize the value of a One Health approach. "The developing world sees the connections between human, animal, and environmental health more than the developed world does," says Kahn. People still live with their livestock, they interact with wildlife more often, and they share common water sources with animals, among other issues. "There's still open defecation; it's shocking," she says. "Today, we're dealing with global population pressures, intensive agriculture, global trade and travel. All these things are taxing the ecosystems"—not to mention human livelihoods.
(Enlarge Image)
Bwindi Community Hospital, in the village of Buhoma just outside Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, serves more than 100,000 villagers in the surrounding area. Founder Scott Kellermann says the hospital’s outreach efforts address the region’s poverty, health, and conservation ailments in a holistic way. © Wendee Nicole
The History of One Health
The connection between animal and human health was recognized even in ancient times; later, nineteenth-century physician Rudolf Virchow coined the term "zoonosis," writing that "between animal and human medicine there are no dividing lines—nor should there be." In the late twentieth century epidemiologist Calvin Schwabe first proposed the idea of "One Medicine" encompassing both human and animal health. But medicine has since lost sight of the forest for the trees, now even to the point of focusing on individual leaves, says Laura Kahn, a physician and research scholar at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
"A schism has been developing in medicine for decades," Kahn says: Should it focus strictly on individual care or more broad-based population-level health? Shortly after the anthrax attacks following 9/11, Kahn was reading the veterinary medicine literature and found herself struck by how many diseases of bioterrorism are—like anthrax—zoonotic. "Yet I discovered that [people working in] veterinary and human medicine and agriculture rarely talk to one another," she says. "We're trying to deal with new twenty-first-century challenges using outdated twentieth-century paradigms."
With West Nile encephalitis, SARS, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, swine flu, and other zoonotic diseases popping up regularly in recent decades, scientists and medical practitioners have taken notice. In 2004 the Wildlife Conservation Society held the One World, One Health conference to bring together leaders from various disciplines; it culminated in the 12 Manhattan Principles, which urged world leaders, scientists, and society to more holistically consider the interrelationship between zoonotic diseases and ecosystems. Since then, more researchers have begun explicitly addressing how the dramatic changes happening to the Earth's ecosystems affect human health. In 2008 Kahn cofounded the One Health Initiative website, a clearinghouse for news and publications related to the movement.
Perhaps even more than in the United States, people living in developing countries recognize the value of a One Health approach. "The developing world sees the connections between human, animal, and environmental health more than the developed world does," says Kahn. People still live with their livestock, they interact with wildlife more often, and they share common water sources with animals, among other issues. "There's still open defecation; it's shocking," she says. "Today, we're dealing with global population pressures, intensive agriculture, global trade and travel. All these things are taxing the ecosystems"—not to mention human livelihoods.
(Enlarge Image)
Bwindi Community Hospital, in the village of Buhoma just outside Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, serves more than 100,000 villagers in the surrounding area. Founder Scott Kellermann says the hospital’s outreach efforts address the region’s poverty, health, and conservation ailments in a holistic way. © Wendee Nicole