Abstract

One Health’ is an emerging global key concept integrating human and animal populations through international research and policy. The complex relationships between the human and animal have resulted in a human-animal-environment interface since prehistorical times. The One Health Commission defines One Health stating that ‘‘One Health is the collaborative effort of multiple health science professions, together with their related disciplines and institutions—working locally, nationally, and globally—to attain optimal health for people, domestic animals, wildlife, plants, and our environment’. The people, animals, plants and the environment are so intrinsically linked that prevention of risks and the mitigation of effects of crises that originate at the interface between humans, animals and their environments can only improve health and well-being.
This paper gives indication for the widespread acceptance of ‘One Health’ due to the logical approach to combat zoonoses. The containment of pandemic threats like avian influenza, SARS etc. within months of outbreak are few examples of important zoonotic disease to name. There are several successful applications of One Health paradigm.
The paper begins with a brief overview of the human-animal interface. The paper continues with the socioeconomic and public health impact caused due to various zoonotic diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Influenza, Ebola virus etc. This is followed by the role of ‘One Health’ to deal the global problem by the global solution. The ‘One Health’ approach was successfully implemented in numerous projects around the world.
There are challenges to limit One Health implementation, while on the other side it gives a value of interdisciplinary collaboration for reducing threats in human-animal-environment interface.

Key words: emerging infectious disease; One Health, viral zoonoses.