WHO One Health programme to be launched in Odisha

Odisha will be one of the four States where the ‘One Health’ programme of the World Health Organisation (WHO) will be piloted. The concept of One Health is to prevent, predict, detect, and respond to health threats while balancing and optimising the health of people, animals, and the environment.

Odisha Public Health Director, Niranjan Mishra said that the focus will be on Zoonotic diseases that can be transmitted naturally from animals to humans like rabies, anthrax, scrub typhus, Nipah and others. A state-level and district-level action plan and coordination committees will be set up in this regard, Mishra informed.

As per the WHO, One Health covers public health, veterinary, and environmental sectors. The One Health approach is particularly relevant for food and water safety, nutrition, control of zoonoses (diseases that can spread between animals and humans, such as flu, rabies and Rift Valley fever), pollution management, and combating antimicrobial resistance (the emergence of microbes that are resistant to antibiotic therapy).

“A mapping of districts which are vulnerable to zoonotic diseases and an action plan will be prepared. Surveillance will be increased, laboratory capacity will be strengthened and a proposal has been submitted to the Centre recommending medical colleges to be involved in the process,” Mishra added.