Uniting Health, Conservation, and Food Security for Resilient Communities and a Thriving Planet
What does “One Health” mean for you?
Some of the greatest threats to global well-being — such as COVID-19, HIV/AIDS, antibiotic resistance, and biodiversity collapse — are found where the health of people, animals, and the natural environment intersect.
Emerging diseases from animals account for almost 75 percent of all new diseases in humans; biodiversity collapse threatens the ecosystem services that support life; antibiotic resistance threatens health care, food production, and life expectancy. Understanding and addressing these essential connections — taking a “One Health” approach — is critical to secure basic needs, to respond to current disease outbreaks, and to prevent future pandemics.
One Health and COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of how human health is deeply interconnected with the health of the planet. As a zoonotic disease — one that can be transmitted between animals and people — “spillover” of COVID-19 from an animal host to humans likely occurred along the wildlife supply chain, in which people hunt, capture, or breed wild animals to eat or to sell into markets. Poor hygiene and unsafe handling practices along these chains increase the risk of zoonotic disease spillover and spread.
The economic and food security impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic threaten people around the world by massively disrupting food systems and stressing social safety nets. Some households are turning to the natural environment — the safety net of last resort — to meet their basic needs.
This overreliance on natural resources can result in further degradation of the environment, perpetuating a vicious cycle. Throughout the world, the human health burden of zoonotic diseases falls heavily on the poor, especially in regions recovering from other humanitarian crises.
How USAID Tackles Development Challenges with a One Health Approach
Our partner countries’ growing self-reliance depends on natural resources. However, when natural resources are not used sustainably, it threatens our environment’s ability to provide critical ecosystem services — fertile soil, clean air and water, food, pollination, defenses against vector-borne diseases, and more. USAID programs can help by taking a One Health approach.
Malawi has lost 12 percent of its tree cover since 2000 — and that loss has accelerated over time. This has resulted in increased flooding of agricultural fields and crop destruction, reduced access to clean drinking water, reduced dietary nutrition, and increased risk of diarrheal disease. USAID’s Africa RISING program in Malawi addresses these issues by helping families sustainably intensify their farms to improve production. For example, smallholder farmers learn agroforestry practices that integrate trees with crops and maintain a green cover on the land year-round. This allows farmers to improve food security and nutrition while increasing soil fertility, tree canopy, and wildlife habitat.
In 2006, Bangladesh experienced an outbreak of illness and sudden deaths. USAID supported research by EcoHealth Alliance epidemiologists, who identified a connection between the bat-borne Nipah virus and date palm sap. The natural habitat for Nipah-carrying bats is tropical forests, but when that habitat is destroyed, the bats seek other sources of food, like date palms. In South Asia, raw date palm sap is a sweet drink popular in the winter when the sap is easiest to tap. People typically hang pots in the trees overnight to collect the sap, during which bats can contaminate the liquid with their saliva, urine, and feces. Community health workers collaborated with affected communities to promote simple but effective changes, including using closed sap collection containers and boiling the date palm sap before drinking. These actions disrupted the cycle of contamination, illness, and death.
Different species of the Ebola virus have had devastating impacts on communities throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The West African Ebola epidemic (2014–2016) was the largest of its kind in history, leading to nearly 30,000 reported deaths.
In 2018, USAID-supported scientists in Sierra Leone, who were on the front lines of the battle against the disease, discovered a new Ebola virus species (Bombali ebolavirus) in a bat host before detection in an infected human or animal. Discoveries such as these have provided critical insight into where, when, and how emerging zoonotic viruses spread, enabling rapid detection and response to future outbreaks. USAID is now taking the next step to further understand and address the risks posed by zoonotic diseases. A new project, STOP Spillover, will enhance understanding of the complex drivers of viral spillover and strengthen national capacities in surveillance, risk analysis, and behavior change, enabling countries to rapidly identify and contain future outbreaks. Additionally, USAID’s HEARTH program is currently co-creating a dozen alliances with private-sector partners to advance conservation of threatened ecosystems, support public health and well-being, and encourage agriculture and other livelihoods, with the first awards expected in late 2020 and early 2021.
The Way Forward
USAID joins the global community in recognizing One Health Day on Nov. 3, which highlights these connections and the need to address these complex challenges holistically.
At USAID, colleagues across the Agency — from the Bureau for Global Health; the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment; the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security; and the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance — are joining forces to preserve human health, food security, and the health of the planet. When we work together across sectors, we can achieve more sustainable and resilient outcomes for people and for the planet we call home.
About the Authors
Zandra Andre serves as Senior Infectious Disease Technical Advisor for USAID’s Bureau for Global Health (GH), Natalie Bailey is a Biodiversity and Communications Advisor for USAID’s Forestry and Biodiversity Office in the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment, Alexis Barnes is the Online Communications Specialist in USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), Christine Jost is Senior Livestock Technical Advisor in BHA, Kiersten Johnson is a Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor in USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, Aaron Rossi is a Communications Advisor for USAID’s Global Health Security Division in GH, and Joseph Tritschler serves as Agriculture and Food Security/Livestock Surge in BHA.
Read More:
- Biodiversity Integration in Practice: A Case Study of USAID in Mozambique
- Impacts of Forests on Children’s Diet in Rural Areas across 27 Developing Countries
- The Importance of Wild Pollinators for Food Security and Nutrition
- Incorporating Natural Ecosystems into Global Health and Food Security Programmes
