Hygiena 2021, 66(4):131-136 | DOI: 10.21101/hygiena.a1794

One Health approach - concept, benefits and challenges of its application

Katarína Kromerová, Vladimír Bencko

Univerzita Karlova, 1. lékařská fakulta, Ústav hygieny a epidemiologie a Všeobecná fakultní nemocnice, Praha, Česká republika

One Health is a science-based holistic concept that recognises the close link between human, animal and environmental health and has many benefits. For successful implementation, it requires a multi-sectoral, multidisciplinary approach at the local, national and global levels. It is associated with many challenges, such as overcoming reluctance from individual scientific disciplines, insufficient harmonisation of terminology, priorities and concepts across disciplines and sectors and many uncertainties to be assessed and inputs for activities to be identified. Other challenges include problematic assessment of cost-benefit ratios as there are few comparable measures, imbalances between sectors in capacity, resource and capacity allocation, legal or other structural barriers to cooperation and comprehensive holistic solutions that can be difficult to sell politically and may require creation of new systems and capacities (even with costs). Despite the many challenges it poses, it is a solution for effective risk management not only for human health, but also for animal health and the environment.

Keywords: One Health, environment - health effects, health risk management, food safety, zoonoses, epidemic

Received: October 2021; Accepted: November 18, 2021; Published: December 10, 2021  Show citation