One Health and Communication



One Health is a term used to describe a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to human, animal, and environmental health.  It unites physicians, veterinarians, ecologists, politicians, etc. in the effort to improve the health of all species.  Traditionally, health was compartmentalized into seperate sectors.  Physicians looked after human health, veterinarians looked after animal health, and ecologists and environmental groups looked after environmental health.  However all these sectors of health are linked to one another.  Climate change affects the temporal patterns of diseases, healthy animals can be vectors and carry diseases that affect humans, and zoonotic diseases easily move between humans and animals.  The health of our agricultural animals affects the quality of the food we eat but their health can be affected by nearby wildlife.  Consider avian influenza, it is a zoonotic disease that affects humans, chickens, turkeys, and wild birds.  Wild birds can carry influenza from as far as Asia to North America and then infect our domestic poultry.  This affects poultry products and people working with chickens and turkeys.  Hence it is more efficient and thorough to look at health in a multidisciplanry approach rather than as seperate compartments.




These are examples of several zoontic diseases.  This table shows the importance of considering animal health along with human health.
AJ Cann. (2009). Zoonotic Transmission of Viruses, Retrieved 12/04/2012 from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajc1/4137857593/.

Because of the collaborative nature of One Health, communication between disciplines is extremely important. The One Health Initiative is an organization that works to connect professionals from various disciplines and the public to futher the health of all species.  They are also a great example of an organization that uses social media to distribute their message.  Aside from having a complete, easy to naviagte website, the One Health Initiative also distributes quarterly newsletters, the most recent from Winter 2012,  through their website and email.  The newsletter contains articles that focus on issues that affect human, animal and environmental health and is written in a format that is equally accessible to the public and professionals.  They also are on Twitter, @OneHealthNews, which is a great way to keep the public informed about current events.  I think the One Health Initiative is a leader in communication as they take advantage of the social media tools available.

One Health is not the only area that is taking advantage of social media.  Alana Soderberg discusses how social media is used in the fashion world to advertise, draw customers in, and inform people about current trends.  While these two areas of interest are very different they use social media in a similar way.  This also demonstrates how versatile social media is.  What it comes down to is the ease and efficiency of spreading the message, no matter what that message is.  Social media is becoming the new medium for communication whether you are talking about fashion, food, or One Health.