One Health Day, held annually on Nov. 3, is an international campaign to engage as many individuals as possible on the benefits of a One Health approach in disease prevention, public health and global security.
One Health gives scientists and advocates a powerful voice for moving beyond current provincial approaches to emerging zoonotic infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, climate change, environmental pollution, food safety, comparative/ translational medicine and many other problems, to a holistic default way of doing business.
This year One Health Day celebrations are especially poignant. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, One Health is being recognized and embraced as needed now more that ever. On the zoonotic diseases front the public is beginning to understand that we are now living what the global One Health Community has been teaching and warning about for over 15 years. It is more urgent now than ever to make One Health thinking and acting the default way of doing business at all levels of academia, research, government and policy.
To highlight and encourage the next generation of One Health experts, multi-disciplinary student groups can compete for cash prizes and global recognition again in 2020. Up to four Student Competition awards of $2,000 each may go to the top event in each of four global regions.
The winning team of the most 2019 One Health Day Student Events Competition will be recognized and celebrated today at the Virtual 6th World One Health Congress. The University of California, Davis will be recognized for their One Health Symposium: Interfaces – One Health at Borders and Margins winning submission. This daylong event explored issues impacting human, animal and ecosystem health at urban/rural interfaces and political borders. Having received a $2,000 cash award, the UC Davis team will utilize the funds to expand the Student One Health symposium into a two-day event.
About One Health Day
Launched in April 2016 by three leading international One Health groups, tthe One Health Commission, the One Health Initiative Autonomous pro bono Team and the One Health Platform Foundation, global One Health Day has grown into an annual platform for One Health advocates around the world to educate in their regions about One Health and One Health challenges.
About One Health
One Health is a movement to forge co-equal, all-inclusive collaborations, in both research and applied sciences, between human and animal health arenas, chemical, engineering and social scientists, dentists, nurses, agriculturalists and food producers, wildlife and environmental health specialists and many other related disciplines that fall under its purview. As early as 2010 the World Bank recognized and published documentary evidence supporting benefits of a One Health approach in disease prevention, public health and global security. Today, the One Health approach is being increasingly accepted by numerous major international organizations such as the World Medical Association (WMA), the World Veterinary Association (WVA), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The reader can review a compilation of organizations that are actively working to advance the One Health paradigm shift and many additional organizations and individuals that declare support for the concept.
Information courtesy of One Health Platform