How can One Health contribute to pandemic prevention? Looking at Ebola through a One Health lens

Abstract

Abstract One Health has been gaining acceptance as an approach to addressing complex health challenges. Due to the multifactorial nature of disease emergence, pandemic prevention efforts benefit from a transdisciplinary approach to identifying risk factors, effective mitigation strategies and control points, hence making One Health attractive. When considering a zoonotic disease with pandemic potential, such as Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), gaining an understanding of the factors that can contribute to an increased risk of disease spillover occurring allows for early intervention, decreasing the risk of initial transmission from animal to human. However, despite the advantages that the One Health approach offers, there remain challenges to adopting and operationalising it effectively, including barriers of status, bias and power between professions and the effective integration of environmental health and social science expertise. One Health Impact Statement The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the interrelated nature of human, animal and environmental health. There is renewed focus on the importance of pandemic prevention efforts and an acknowledgement that human health cannot be viewed in isolation. By drawing on a wide variety of professional disciplines and embracing traditional and indigenous knowledge regarding diseases and social determinants of health, a much richer understanding of potential intervention points can be generated. Additionally, a deeper understanding can be gained concerning actions with the greatest potential to prevent the emergence and establishment of diseases with pandemic potential within a human population. This desk study highlights that there is value in harnessing the transdisciplinary One Health approach to increase knowledge regarding the currently poorly understood risk factors for Ebola Virus Disease (EBV) spilling over from animals to humans. It also highlights some of the challenges to effective implementation of the approach.