Our survival depends on shared health of all things

Too often, public health is treated as if it exists in a bubble, concerned only with people. But our survival is tied to the health of every other ecosystem: animals, plants, microbes, and the environment we all share.

This is the foundation of One Health, an approach that recognizes the health of people, animals, and the environment as inseparable, and that protecting one ecosystem means protecting them all. When we ignore these connections, we miss early warning signs of disaster, and the cost of that delay can be measured in lives.

In 1999, Dr. Tracey McNamara, head pathologist at the Bronx Zoo, noticed something strange; an unusual number of dead birds, especially crows, across New York City. Around the same time, infectious disease doctor Dr. Deborah Asnis was treating patients with unexplained neurological symptoms. McNamara suspected there was a link.

Her autopsies revealed brain lesions in the birds, consistent with encephalitis. She suspected a mosquito-borne pathogen and urgently contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They dismissed her concerns because the disease was not directly impacting humans. Undeterred, she turned to veterinary labs and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Scientists there identified the culprit: West Nile virus, a pathogen never before seen in the Western Hemisphere. Only then did the connection between the bird deaths and the human illnesses become undeniable.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-our-survival-depends-on-shared-health-of-all-things/