Abstract
Introduction:
One Health is a health intervention framework that seeks to reinforce the health impacts of cross-cutting interactions between humans, animals, and the environment. Recently, with the increased number of emerging zoonotic diseases catalyzed by factors such as climate change, a renewed One Health approach emerged in global health dialog and strategies. The aim of this report was to assess the integration of new understanding of One Health in global health policy discussions and dialogs, reflecting initiatives and strategies for One Health from various countries around the world.
Methods:
We conducted a comparative study to track the frequency of member states, World Health Organization (WHO) staff, and nonstate actors addressing the One Health approach while addressing agenda items throughout the 72nd and 75th World Health Assemblies (WHA) (the last pre-COVID and first post-COVID World Health Assemblies, respectively), followed by a quantitative analysis of information, taking into account entity mentioning, specification, agenda item, details, and type of intervention. Additionally, we conducted a mini-literature review to offer a brief yet insightful summary of key references relevant to our work.
Results:
In 2019, the majority of the statements were made by Member States (90%), with just three statements from Non-State Actors and one from WHO staff on One Health in 2022; member states still dominated with 78.4%, but we saw a 9% increase in statements by WHO staff. Notably, from 2019 to 2022, the number of WHA statements mentioning one health status increased 1.6-fold, from 31 to 51. In 2022, statements for One Health appeared in diverse agenda points, such as governance and human resources for health and infectious and vector-borne diseases.
Conclusion:
The emergence of COVID-19, a zoonotic disease, stressed the importance of One Health for human health and might be a reason for the increase in interest in calls for One Health education and research as a way to prevent new zoonotic pandemics and environmental sustainability. One Health education and research initiatives are vital in preparing the healthcare workforce to respond to infectious diseases, as evidenced by the increased interest following COVID-19.