Applications of the One Health concept: Current status in the Middle East

Background: The One Health concept (OHC) seeks to improve the health of plants, animals, and humans because improving animal and plant health will increase the capacity for improving human health. Many risks such as plant and animal biotechnology applications have the potential to generate new diseases that can be transmitted to humans. In this way, the health of humans, animals, and plants is interrelated and depends on one another. However, it has been difficult to apply the OHC in some countries, such as those in the Middle East. The absence of financial support in the region is a major hindrance to applying this concept in the region. The application of the OHC requires the support of specialists who can advocate the government for support in launching OHC-related projects. Here, we discuss the OHC in the context of antimicrobial resistance, zoonotic diseases, and biosafety/biosecurity, which are important public health issues. Furthermore, we describe the current status of the OHC in the Middle East and recent research conducted related to this concept. There has been recent international solidarity in the application of the OHC to reduce risks that threaten the health of organisms. Several countries jointly launched the Global Health Security Agenda in 2014 with the aim of realizing a world that is free of infectious disease-related health risks. However, no previous review articles have examined the applications of the OHC in the Middle East region. This article discusses the OHC in terms of its needs and current applications in the Middle East. Methodology: The following keywords were used in the search: "One Health," "Middle East," "medicinal plants," "viruses," "rabies," "MERS," and "antimicrobial resistance." Related papers were obtained by searching for these keywords using available search engines, such as PubMed, Google Scholar, and Google search, as well as international organization websites. Conclusion(s): The concept of One Health is relatively new and has not been applied in most countries, possibly because the value of this concept for improving human health is not well understood. The key principle defining this concept and its importance is the interdependency of plants, animals, and human health. By applying the OHC, humans can benefit from healthy plants and animals by enhancing their growing conditions, medications, and environments. This would in turn improve general human health by allowing the safe extraction of therapeutics and food resources.Copyright © 2023

Grappling with (re)-emerging infectious zoonoses: Risk assessment, mitigation framework, and future directions

Low-income countries (LICs) in Africa, southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbeans constitute potential hotspots for future outbreaks of zoonoses. A comprehensive framework on risk drivers, assessment, and mitigation in LICs is lacking. This paper presents the nature, history, risk factors, and drivers of zoonoses in LICs. A Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment and Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points are proposed for assessing human health risks. The mitigation framework entails: (i) learning from the COVID-19 pandemic, (ii) the precautionary principle, (iii) raising public and stakeholder awareness, and (iv) the One World, One Health concept. Future perspectives are discussed on: (i) curbing poaching and illicit wildlife trade, (ii) translating the ‘One Health’ concept to practice, (iii) the dilemma of dealing with wildlife hosts of zoonoses, including the morality and ethics of culling versus non-culling, (iv) the challenges of source tracking and apportionment of zoonoses, and (v) decision scenarios accounting for the high human health risks and the high uncertainty in current evidence. Future directions on zoonoses include: (i) the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance, (ii) environmental reservoirs and hosts, (iii) the development of tools for source tracking and apportionment, and (iv) host-receptor-pathogen interactions. Funding models and the application of novel tools, i.e., game theory, genomics, shell disorder analysis, and geographical information systems, are discussed. The proposed framework enables a better understanding of the key risk drivers, assessment, and mitigation in LICs. Further work is needed to test and validate the framework and develop generic lessons for risk assessment and mitigation in LICs.

The concept of one health applied to the problem of zoonotic diseases.

Zoonotic diseases are a burden on healthcare systems globally, particularly underdeveloped nations. Numerous vertebrate animals (e.g., birds, mammals and reptiles) serve as amplifier hosts or reservoirs for viral zoonoses. The spread of zoonotic disease is associated with environmental factors, climate change, animal health as well as other human activities including globalization, urbanization and travel. Diseases at the human-animal environment interface (e.g., zoonotic diseases, vector-borne diseases, food/water borne diseases) continue to pose risk to animals and humans with a great significant mortality and morbidity. It is estimated that of 1400 infectious diseases known to affect humans, 60% of them are of animal origin. In addition, 75% of the emerging infectious diseases have a zoonotic nature, worldwide. The one health concept plays an important role in the control and prevention of zoonoses by integrating animal, human, and environmental health through collaboration and communication among osteopaths, wildlife, physicians, veterinarians professionals, public health and environmental experts, nurses, dentists, physicists, biomedical engineers, plant pathologists, biochemists, and others. No one sector, organization, or person can address issues at the animal-human-ecosystem interface alone.