The world is going through a turbulent period right now – healthcare systems across the world
are battling the coronavirus pandemic and the threat of other zoonotic viruses looms stronger
than ever before. Though our medical output has often adjusted to the newfound pace, the
produced medicines take hold less and less as Anti-Microbial
Resistance (AMR) rises, largely due to unethical farming practices. To address these
challenges, the One Health initiative, adapting the World Health Organization’s model for it and
bringing medical practitioners together for advocating the cause presents a way
forward.
Our initiative, Doctors for One Health, brings together voices from the Indian medical community
as a response to the crises we currently face. It acts as a network for these esteemed
professionals to collectively endorse One Health for the world, highlighting the undeniable
connect between the environment, human and animal health.
One health as an approach, in essence, commits to treating the health of animals – the
distinctions of wildlife, pets, or livestock notwithstanding – in amalgamation with humans and
the environment, recognizing that all three are extremely interdependent and interactive amongst
each other, and thus a robust system accounting for all three is the need of the hour.
The One Health system possesses an all-inclusive range, and thus is an important new approach to
healthcare worldwide.
We have committed to collaborating with over a hundred Indian healthcare professionals from
renowned medical institutions such as AIIMS New Delhi, Lady Harding Medical College, Maulana
Azad College among others – to form a multifaceted petition that seeks to address unethical
animal based consumption, and provide healthy and sustainable plant based consumption
alternatives. A new perspective of integrated healthcare – termed ‘One health’ by the WHO, it
forgoes the hard distinctions we make between animals, humans and the environment in favour of
recognizing that all three are ultimately connected and that the wellness of all should reflect
this notion.
"It is high time we move towards a scientific approach that recognizes the unmitigated potential of assessing the state of human, animal and environment wellness and wellbeing as no longer detached, but reliant and related to each other. The One Health doctrine is the key to a door that has been locked for a long time."
"Whenever voices in a community - such as our medical ones - come together, it can be a wonderful catalyst for pronounced change. Therefore, this initiative of Indian doctors to advocate for One Health of humans and animals - can pave the way for something truly remarkable."
Dr. David Nabarro, a WHO special envoy on COVID-19 talks about the “real dangers in these kinds of environments” and suggests wet markets pose a threat regardless of where they are in the world.
Read MoreThe Executive Secretary of The UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, endorses wet market bans, but also emphasizing the need for alternatives to the communities that may rely on them.
Read MoreThe United Nations Environment Program’s official statement on the COVID-19 crisis, stating that a sound environmental response is needed.
Read MoreThe United Nations Environment Program on zoonotic viruses, and whether the coronaviruses are here to stay.
Read More• The OIE World Animal Health Information System, on the need to learn lessons from the COVID-19 crisis, and similar crises in the past.
Read MoreA UNEP Frontiers report, finding that on average, a new infectious disease capable of infecting humans emerges every 4 days
Read MoreThe World Health Organization elaborating upon its One Health principles, and how such a response is the need of the hour.
Read MoreA resourceful QnA by the Food and Agriculture Organization about COVID-19, as well as its impact on Agricultural practices and food safety.
Read MoreThe Food and Agriculture Organization, maintaining that while evidence of infection through food is not observed, contamination of the food chain will, in many ways prevent the emergence of many zoonotic diseases like Covid-19.
Read More
A strong and firm government response underpins change, as it helps both legitimize and enforce
what needs to be done. This aims to provide a dynamic and complex picture in a simplified form
to request the government to align with our four main goals, which would be to -
Not only will these goals, if accomplished, ensure a safe and sustainable world free of
coronavirus like zoonotic pandemics, but it will also boost our current model of health
infrastructure that struggles to bear the weight of dire situations like the world currently
finds itself in. The collaboration with the healthcare professionals in the Doctors for One
Health initiative, and for also provides us not only with a stronger, unified voice that
instrumentally aids us in our endeavours, but also aids in changing the face of healthcare for
the greater good.
If you are a Doctor that supports our aims, please join the network! You can
Sign Up Here
Change absolutely starts with the individual, and if you choose to vote with your wallets by
refusing to buy unethically produced meat based products, you’re doing a great service to the
cause. You can also participate in our 21
Day Challenge, to support a plant-based diet, or, if
you are a healthcare worker, you can also your voice to support this endeavour. Additionally,
spreading awareness of these practices too, is very important; and if you’re reading this you’ve
already made strides in that department!
While things seem chaotic now, change is on the horizon, and we all have potential to be a
catalyst for it. As the revered couplet goes, “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”