At the 7th World One Health Congress (WOHC) in Singapore, Word Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus encouraged member-states that included the Philippines to continue working toward a healthier, safer and fairer world while the battle against the pandemic is still ongoing.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has taught all us many painful lessons. There have been many reviews of the global response to the pandemic with more than 300 recommendations,” Tedros said in his opening remarks.
He said the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, UN Environment Program, WHO and the World Organization for Animal Health have launched the “One Health Joint Plan of Action” to integrate and coordinate their work across humans, animals, agricultural and environmental sectors.
At the same time, the WHO chief also noted that “about 70 percent of all emerging pathogens have zoonotic source.”
“Irresponsible land use, deforestation and climate change all increase the risk of pathogens spilling over from wildlife, domestic animals to humans,” he said, adding that making the world safer will mean addressing these underlying drivers of epidemics and pandemics.
The gathering highlighted collaboration as a key facet of the One Health approach, and an important factor in global health preparedness efforts. It also seeks to advance the global One Health movement to improve health and well-being by preventing and mitigating crises that originate at the animal-human-environment interface.
It would tie in to the reported “pandemic treaty” being crafted by WHO member-states that will be used to guide and unite countries in times of health crisis.
As always, prevention was recognized as a key step to stop or at least limit spillovers of zoonotic diseases from animals to humans, and the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need to tackle the risks coming from the human-animal-ecosystem interface, while considering drivers such as land use and climate change, loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystems, unsustainable agricultural practice and animal production, wildlife trade and the rapid pace of globalization and population mobility.
Now that we have reached the point where the end of the crippling pandemic is finally in sight, now is the time to put into use the lessons we learned over the past two years and ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
The human race needs to keep in mind how the delicate balance between humans, animals and our environment can be tipped by our activities, and how the consequences of our carelessness can be devastating.*
