Advocates Can Connect on One Health Commission Website

Advocates Can Connect on One Health Commission Website

01/25/2012

This newly redesigned website is a central focus for sharing accomplishments and ideas using the One Health approach.Scroll down to bottom of page to share ideas with One Health advocates.

One Health Advocates Have a New Way to Connect On the One Health Commission Website

 

Contact:

Dr. Roger Mahr, One Health Commission, 515-294-0572, rkmahr@onehealthcommission.org

Connie Scovin, Center for Food Security and Public Health, 860-355-8599, cscovin@iastate.edu

 

AMES, Iowa – The One Health Commission, a globally focused organization dedicated to the improved health of people, domestic animals, wildlife, plants and the environment has launched a newly redesigned website where people can share accomplishments and ideas using the One Health approach for global health benefits. The site address is www.onehealthcommission.org.

“The One Health Commission recognizes that people working worldwide toward One Health need a place to find each other and to share information,” said Dr. Roger Mahr, chief executive officer of the One Health Commission. “We have therefore redesigned the existing Commission’s website to become the central focus for communicating ideas, solutions and commitment.”

The site’s Resources section lists organizations from around the world that are pursuing One Health initiatives and activities. The News of the World section compiles news about One Health and includes a list of News links where people can connect to find more information.

The One Health Commission site encourages organizations to submit additional information on website links that will benefit the One Health movement. “We are seeking information about   organizations with a One Health focus; One Health events and conferences; case studies of One Health successes; news highlights; anything of note in One Health,” said Mahr.

“The One Health Commission includes major health organizations that encourage working together across disciplines,” said Dr. Al Osbahr, chair of the One Health Commission board of directors and the American Medical Association (AMA) representative to the One Health Commission.  “When professionals in animal, plant and human health talk to each other about issues, we can integrate results. Whether it is zoonotic diseases that affect both humans and animals; plant growing conditions that risk food-borne illness; or environmental conditions that threaten the ecosystem and health; the more we work together, the closer we are to overall health.”

Current member organizations of the One Health Commission are the AMA, American Veterinary Medical Association, American Public Health Association, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Association of Academic Health Centers, Association of American Medical Colleges, and Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges.

The Iowa State University One Health consortium that works closely with the One Health Commission includes the ISU Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, Agriculture and Life Sciences, Business, Design, Engineering, Human Sciences, and Liberal Arts and Sciences; the ISU Extension; the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and College of Public Health; the University of Nebraska-Omaha Medical Center Colleges of Medicine and Public Health; the USDA Agricultural Research Service National Animal Disease Center, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) National Veterinary Services Laboratories, and USDA APHIS Center for Veterinary Biologics; the Nutrition and Wellness Research Center; the Center for Food Security and Public Health; the Institute for International Cooperation in Animal Biologics; the Partnerships in Prevention Science Institute; the Plant Sciences Institute; and the Center for Advanced Host Defenses, Immunobiotics and Translational Comparative Medicine.

The One Health Commission has established its headquarters at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. For more information on the One Health Commission, visit www.onehealthcommission.org.

 

About the One Health Commission

The One Health Commission is a globally focused organization dedicated to promoting improved health of people, domestic animals, wildlife, plants and the environment. The organization is dedicated to informing all audiences about the importance of transcending institutional and disciplinary boundaries, and transforming the way that human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health professionals, and their related disciplines, work together to improve the health of all living things and the environment.

 

Comments
A wake up call to everyone to know that our individual actions are responsible for the overall welfare of society especially where health matters are concerned. We must all get involved!

DR. MWANGI GACHOYA | | 05/04/2012 4:43 AM
Some ideas: 1. Visit the AVMA One Health web page at http://www.avma.org/onehealth/ especially the 'What can you do' section. 2. Tell your veterinary and human health colleagues about the concept and why you believe it is important. 3. Be sure you are educating clients 'whenever' you suspect a zoonotic disease process (you likely already do this) and urge them to talk with their primary care physicians if they have any concerns. Tell them their doctor is welcome to call you to discuss the issue from the perspective of what you have observed on the animal side. The aim is to increase direct interdisciplinary interactions as often as possible. 4. If not already, get involved in your local state professional association and bring the concept of One Health forward there. 5. Urge / suggest that your local CE providers (state and local VMAs) consider bringing speakers from the human arena to speak on one of the 'many' zoonotic topics.If you have friends in the human health care arena (nurses, PAs, MDs, public health workers, etc) urge them to do the same in their CE forums, ie bring in animal health care providers to speak about zoonotic processes. 6. Look around your community. Are there educational institutions? Make forays there to introduce the interdisciplimary concept of One Health. Offer to speak at local health career fairs or community colleges. 7. If you get a good local response from all these outreaches, consider forming a One Health discussion group that focuses on issues at the interface of animal, human and environmental health. 8. Bone up on emerging zoonotic processes so you can recognize one if it walks in your clinic. For example; Leishmaniasis is showing up more often in dogs in the US especially in fox hounds and any dogs being brought in from Aghanistan / Pakistan by soldiers returning home. Advocate for screening of dogs coming into the country to prevent this zoonotic disease from becoming prevalent here. It kills more people worldwide (70,000) than rabies (55,000). Warning, it may look at first like lymphoma. Others not so often thought about, Bartonella, balisascaris, tick-borne diseases. 9. Use your imagination and enjoy the One Health journey. There is much to learn and much work to do to bridge the silos of our health care system

Cheryl Stroud, DVM, PhD | | 04/11/2012 9:02 PM
This is a long overdue concept. What can the individual practioner do at the local level?

Dr. James Zgoda | | 03/08/2012 4:53 PM
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