One Health

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 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.

View the OHSAPZ manual

Read the December 2023 news story.

Publications

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