One Health
One Health assessment and capacity strengthening for infectious disease prevention, detection, and control
One Health (OH) integrates health functions and systems to promote a sustainable human, animal, and environmental ecosystem. Zoonotic diseases—those that spillover from animals to humans—play a major role as emerging public health threats, claiming responsibility for most key epidemics and pandemics in the last few decades. Several factors account for the increased exposure and range of zoonotic diseases in public health, including ecological, social, political, and economic factors. OH is increasingly recognized as an important approach for health systems, particularly with respect to strengthening prevention, detection, and response to zoonotic and other emerging disease threats. While many global health security frameworks reference the importance of OH, there are fewer existing accessible methodologies, tools, and resources for supporting countries and other regional or sub-national authorities in systematically assessing and implementing OH.
Over the last decade, our team—in collaboration with various academic and ministerial partners—has developed, validated, and refined research methodologies, including the One Health Systems Assessment for Priority Zoonoses (OHSAPZ) and One Health Transboundary Assessment for Priority Zoonoses (OHTAPZ) tools to assist with creating consensus lists of priority zoonotic diseases for cross-sectoral consideration; identifying current strengths and gaps in OH communication and coordination between sectors (and, in the case of OHTAPZ, between countries); and developing and disseminating prioritized recommendations for future capacity strengthening. Implemented to date in seven diverse countries in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean regions, these tools provide a modular, flexible, and easily adaptable approach to OH systems assessment that can support national capacity strengthening, regional epidemic preparedness, and compliance with international frameworks.
Tools
One Health Point of Entry (POE) Checklist
One Health Systems Assessment for Priority Zoonoses
One Health Point of Entry (POE) Checklist
The One Health team at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security is thrilled to announce our newest tool for disease preparedness and response capacities at Points of Entry!
The One Health Point of Entry (POE) Checklist is a novel assessment tool developed to evaluate the multisectoral capacities of land border crossings and international airports in responding to transboundary zoonotic disease (TZD) threats. Rooted in the One Health (OH) framework—which integrates human, animal, and environmental health sectors—the checklist is designed to assess both preparedness and operational readiness at POEs, which serve as critical junctures for trade, travel, and biosecurity.
Developed through a collaborative process with stakeholders from Iraq and Jordan, including ministries of health and agriculture, and border authorities, the checklist is structured around the Prevent, Detect, Respond, and Evaluate framework. Drawing from international guidance documents, the checklist includes practitioner-focused questions for both ranging from personal protective equipment and zoonotic disease surveillance to cross-border communication and coordinated response planning.
Two tailored versions of the checklist are available: one for land border crossings and another designed specifically for international airports. The tool offers a standardized, evidence-based approach for governments to assess and strengthen OH capacities at their borders, complement existing global health security tools, and inform national-level decision-making to improve biosurveillance and emergency response systems.
The tool has been made publicly available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license on the Johns Hopkins Data Repository. The dataset package includes documentation, a literature and keyword review, and the final checklists in both English and Arabic, provided as Excel spreadsheets for ease of use along with PDF and Word files for supporting materials. For questions on the tool, please contact esorrell@jhu.edu
View the One Health POE Checklist
One Health Systems Assessment for Priority Zoonoses
A tool for cross-sectoral prioritization of zoonotic diseases and systems mapping for One Health coordination.
The OHSAPZ tool was initially developed in 2014 as an assessment and gap analysis methodology to map public health and veterinary systems used to detect and report priority zoonotic diseases, focusing on surveillance and laboratory networks. The timing of its development mirrored growing interest and investment in OH tools. In 2016, the methodology was refined to align more directly with the milestones and indicators under the International Health Regulations’ (IHR) revised Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, and expanded to include the environmental health sector, for a more holistic approach. Following additional validation, the third edition of the manual and accompanying materials was published and made available to download in 2023. Throughout its lifespan, OHSAPZ has been presented as a phased approach to identify and engage human, veterinary, and environmental health sectors in the development of a consensus priority zoonotic diseases list; examine the structures and mechanisms for communication and coordination between and within governmental sectors for the creation of systems map schematics; and provide a framework for analyzing strengths and weaknesses of existing intersectoral coordination in order to help identify gaps and develop targeted recommendations to strengthen OH capacity and coordination. The goal is to help identify priorities and gaps that limit information-sharing for action focusing on zoonotic diseases seen as a priority by all implicated sectors. The research team is preparing the OHTAPZ manual for publication, with anticipated publication in summer 2025.
Read the December 2023 news story.
Publications
Nagar, A., Linder, A.G., Fogarty, A.S. et al. Findings from a disease prioritization and tabletop exercise to evaluate transboundary One Health capacities between Jordan and Iraq. BMC Glob. Public Health. 2025;3.. doi:10.1186/s44263-025-00183-5
Osman AY, Saidouni A, Wambua LW, Mahrous H, Malik MR, Lubogo M, Van de Weerdt R, et al. IHR-PVS National Bridging Workshop for Somalia: An interactive and participatory approach for operationalizing the One Health roadmap. One Health. 2024 Jul 14;19:100858. doi:10.1016/j.onehlt.2024.100858
Miller LN, Saadawi WK, Hamouda WB, Elgari AS, Abdulkarim EA, Lmrabet AMM, Elbukhmari AE, et al. Assessing One Health capacities for Transboundary Zoonotic Diseases at the Libya-Tunisia Border. One Health Outlook. 2024;6(1):3. doi:10.1186/s42522-024-00101-z
Standley CJ, Fogarty AS, Miller LN, Sorrell EM. One Health Systems Assessments for Sustainable Capacity Strengthening to Control Priority Zoonotic Diseases Within and Between Countries. Risk Manag Healthc Policy. 2023;16:2497-2504. doi:10.2147/RMHP.S428398
Miller LN, Linder AG, Fogarty AS, Zorgani A, Elmaher O, Almeslati H, Abuabaid H, et al. Using One Health assessments to leverage endemic disease frameworks for emerging zoonotic disease threats in Libya. PLOS Glob Public Health. 2023 Jul 26;3(7):e0002005. doi:10.1371/journal.pgph.0002005
Capoferri AA, Sorrell EM. Assessment of West Nile Virus Lineage 2 Dynamics in Greece and Future Implications. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2021 Jun;21(6):466-474. doi:10.1089/vbz.2020.2703
Standley CJ, Carlin EP, Sorrell EM, Barry AM, Bile E, Diakite AS, Keita MS, et al. Assessing health systems in Guinea for prevention and control of priority zoonotic diseases: A One Health approach. One Health. 2019 Apr 16;7:100093. doi:10.1016/j.onehlt.2019.100093
Sorrell EM, El Azhari M, Maswdeh N, Kornblet S, Standley C, Katz R, Ablan I, et al. Mapping of Networks to Detect Priority Zoonoses in Jordan. Front. Public Health. 2015;3:219. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2015.00219
