Whither One Health in India? Challenges to adopting global strategies for tackling zoonotic diseases

Mridula Paul*, Niti B Jadeja, Nadisha Sidhu, Abi T Vanak

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to specialist publicationArticle

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has sharply brought into focus how intrusions into natural landscapes are not just environmental concerns, but are also intricately entangled with public health. Little attention has been paid to systemic causes such as large-scale biodiversity loss that underlie the emergence and re-emergence of these diseases. Institutional networks of public and animal health in India that are involved in the surveillance and control of zoonoses are outlined herein. It is shown that the lack of a systematic framework that explicitly involves institutions that manage biodiversity and wildlife health leads to gaps in operationalising a One Health framework in India. Addressing these lacunae requires a supra-ministerial mechanism that brings together public health, ecology, and veterinary and social sciences to combat the threats posed by existing and emerging zoonoses.
Original languageEnglish
Volume55
No.49
Specialist publicationEconomic and Political Weekly
Publication statusPublished - 12 Dec 2020

Keywords

  • One Health
  • Human-wildlife conflict
  • public health
  • zoonosis
  • institutional capacity

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