One Health

One Health is "the collaborative effort of multiple disciplines — working locally, nationally, and globally — to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment".

One Health is a new phrase, but the concept extends back to ancient times. The recognition that environmental factors can impact human health can be traced as far back as to the Greek physician Hippocrates (c. 460 BCE – c. 370 BCE) in his text "On Airs, Waters, and Places". He promoted the concept that public health depended on a clean environment.

The Italian physician Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654–1720) was a pioneering epidemiologist, physician, and veterinarian, with a fascination in the role the physical environment played in the spread of disease in humans and animals. Lancisi may have been the first to advocate the use of mosquito nets for prevention of malaria in humans but was also a pioneer in the control of rinderpest in cattle. The idea that human, animal and environmental healths are linked was further revived during the French Revolution by Louis-René Villerme (1782–1863) and Alexandre Parent-Duchâtelet^[] (1790–1835) who developed the specialty of public hygiene.

In the late 19th century, German physician and pathologist Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902) coined the term "zoonosis", and said "...between animal and human medicine there are no dividing lines – nor should there be". Canadian physician William Osler (1849–1919) traveled to Germany to study with Virchow. He returned to Canada and held joint faculty appointments at the McGill University Medical School and the Montreal Veterinary College. Osler was active as a clinical pathologist and internist at the Montreal General Hospital, but was also active in the promotion of veterinary health, and helped investigate a swine typhoid outbreak near Quebec City in 1878; he subsequently co-authored a monograph on parasites in Montreal's pork supply with A. W. Clement, a veterinary student at Montreal Veterinary College.

In 1947, veterinarian James H. Steele furthered the concept in the U.S. by establishing the field of veterinary public health at the CDC. The phrase "One Medicine" was developed and promoted by Calvin W. Schwabe (1927–2006), a veterinary epidemiologist and parasitologist in his textbook "Veterinary Medicine and Human Health".

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Wikipedia