Bhubaneswar: The ‘One Health’ programme proposed by the WHO is going to be implemented in Odisha soon.
The Health Department has initiated the process to start the programme with coordination among various departments, Public Health Director Dr Niranjan Mishra said.
“The idea of one health is to contain the zoonotic diseases which spread from animals to humans like anthrax, Nipah, measles through coordinated actions. The containment, surveillance and treatment of zoonotic disease is the motto of ‘One Health’. To achieve the mission, coordination among various sectors like health, agriculture, veterinary, and wildlife is required. We are working on it.” he added.
‘One Health’ programme has kicked off in four States in India and Odisha is a pilot one. Plans are afoot to cover the entire nation, Mishra said.
According to WHO, One Health is an approach to designing and implementing programmes, policies, legislation and research in which multiple sectors communicate and work together. The One Health approach is critical to addressing health threats in the animal-human-environment interface.
The areas of work in which a One Health approach is particularly relevant include food safety, control of zoonotic diseases, laboratory services, antimicrobial resistance etc.
