The strategic plan reflects shared commitments to enhance collaboration between environmental, animal (wildlife and domestic) and human health, and building new One Health workforce capacity through higher institutions of learning. The strategy also outlines interventions to be undertaken by governm...ent institutions and other partners to enhance existing structures and pool together additional resources to prevent and control zoonotic diseases and other events of public health importance. Successful implementation of the strategy will contribute to the realization of vision 2020 by improving public health, food safety and security, and hence significantly improve the socioeconomic status of the people of Rwanda. It is in this regard that we call upon implementing institutions, bilateral and multilateral partners, civil society and the private sector to join us in implementing the One Health strategy in Rwanda.
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Planetary health is a nascent concept focused on the interdependence of human, animal, and environmental health. It offers a new way to solve global problems, such as pollution and global food security, by balancing the health of our planet with human advancement.
Panorama is motivated by the audac...ious and visionary concept of planetary health. It represents a tremendous opportunity to solve the biggest health and environmental problems of today.
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Antimicrobial or antibiotic resistance is a multi-sectoral global threat affecting human and animal health, food safety, plants, fisheries and the environment as a whole.
Hence, there is a need for a multi-sectoral approach to address AMR. The resulting FAO Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance h...as four components to address the AMR threat.
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The International Council of Nurses (ICN) Code of Ethics ([1], p. 5) specifies the nurse’s role of promoting “an environment in which the human rights, values, customs and spiritual beliefs of the individual, family and community are respected”. The Malta Code of Ethics supports this for nurse...s and midwives [2], stating that the nurse is to “recognize and respect the uniqueness of every patient/client’s biological, psychological, social and spiritual status and needs”. Since patients are attended by different members of the multi-disciplinary team, these codes of ethics also address the holistic care of health care professionals that contribute towards patients’ safety. Examples of some heroes in nursing are given, whereby, their being in care generated signs of spirituality in their attempts to address patients’ needs, while their caring attitude instilled hope and healing.
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Healthy people, healthy animals and a healthy environment worldwide with the One Health approach.
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically demonstrated just how close the link is between humans, animals, and the environment, and has highlighted and aggravated existing challenges. The destruction of na...tural habitats and displacement of species, trade in wild animals, resource-intensive lifestyles and conditions, non-sustainable food systems and, in particular, industrial agriculture and intensive livestock farming are the causes of the emergence of zoonoses as well as numerous other communicable and non-communicable, chronic diseases.
The One Health approach focuses precisely on such interaction between humans, animals, and the environment.
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The global migration context is rapidly changing with new conflicts and coups, new public health threats, new levels of environmental stress and changing perceptions around human mobility. Against that backdrop, migration policies, actions and attitudes are becoming more and more extreme, according ...to the 2021 edition of the Mixed Migration Review, the annual publication by the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC).
Download the full report here: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Mixed-Migration-Review-2021.pdf
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History has shown that governments tend to deprioritize environmental commitments during times of financial and public crises as they work to mitigate immediate needs—and the age of COVID-19 has been no different. Even though human interaction with wildlife is believed to be the cause of the pande...mic, the focus on COVID’s fallout has deprioritized the importance of reversing the damage humans have done to the planet.
COVID has had a multifaceted and detrimental effect on environmental conservation. Not only has funding been diverted to deal with the pandemic, conservation-oriented organizations are operating with minimal staff or have closed entirely. People whose daily work it is to advance environmental science and protect the land and water have become ill or have been forced to stay home because of travel restrictions. Plastic use is at an all-time high.
The good news is that there is an unprecedented opportunity for philanthropy to recharge the effort to protect the planet. This Giving Smarter Guide examines the state of environmental philanthropy, and provides an overview of potential strategic starting points for philanthropy and impact capital to play a role in saving the planet. In addition to offering recommendations specific to the COVID-19 response, the Center for Strategic Philanthropy also asks the questions that philanthropists should consider at the start of their journey into the field of conservation philanthropy.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has led to large increases in healthcare waste, straining under resourced healthcare facilities and exacerbating environmental impacts from solid waste. This report quantifies the additional COVID-19 healthcare waste generated, describes current healthcare waste management syst...ems and their deficiencies, and summarizes emerging best practices and solutions to reduce the impact of waste on human and environmental health. The recommendations included in the report build on actions in the WHO manifesto for a healthy recovery from COVID-19: prescriptions and actionables for a healthy and green recovery. They target the global, national and facility levels to promote a “win–win” scenario for COVID-19 PPE use, testing and vaccinations that are safe and support environmental sustainability.
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Some observers have described the coronavirus pandemic as an 'Anthropocene disease,' thereby highlighting its connection with this new ecological era that is characterised by the considerable pressure human activities are exerting on ecosystems and the consequences on public health, society and the ...environment. This article focuses on the recent emergence of the 'Planetary Health' paradigm. Launched by the Rockefeller Foundation and the medical journal The Lancet, Planetary Health is one of the most ambitious attempts in recent years to systematize global health in the Anthropocene. While recognising the interest and necessity of reflecting on human health and the health of the planet, this article aims to show, however, that the Planetary Health paradigm is problematic and aporetic for two reasons. First, because it is based on a scientistic and depoliticised conception of the Anthropocene, which obscures capitalism's responsibility for the contemporary global and, especially, ecological crisis. Second, because this conception leads to a promotion of solutions that are essentially based on the financialization and technoscientific management of the living world - precisely the underlying cause of the degradation of ecosystems and living conditions that created the Anthropocene in the first place. A different kind of 'planetary health' remains possible and desirable.
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The emergence and transmission of zoonotic diseases are driven by complex interactions
between health, environmental, and socio-political systems. Human movement is considered
a significant and increasing factor in these processes, yet forced migration remains an
understudied area of zoonotic res...earch–due in part to the complexity of conducting interdisciplinary
research in these settings.
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This course offers an overview of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as a global threat to human, animal and environmental health, and explains the role of the food and agriculture sector, and the impact of AMR on agrifood systems. It also describes how the Food and Agriculture Organization of the Unite...d Nations (FAO) is contributing to increased awareness and engagement of all stakeholders in the food and agriculture sector, to tackle AMR.
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The Planetary Health Education Framework is a project of the Planetary Health Alliance (planetaryhealthalliance.org). The Planetary Health Alliance is a consortium of over 250 partners from around the world committed to understanding and addressing the human health impacts of global environmental ch...ange
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Our mission ‘To drive transformational change for continuous improvement of health and well-being of humans, animals, and environment through OH principles and approach to research, training and community service’ is a refined version of what we have always known about ourselves. Our focus, comm...itment and mission remain the same.
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The spillover of infectious agents from animals to humans in recent decades has had a significant impact on the health of humans, animals, and our environment. To minimize the impact of future pandemic threats, the Southeast Asia One Health University Network (SEAOHUN) was established in 2011 to dev...elop the next generation of skillful and competent One Health (OH) workforce with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development and its One Health Workforce project.
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the Planetary Health Alliance issued a call for planetary health case studies to strengthen and expand the field of planetary health by shining a light on cross-sectoral solutions that optimize human health in the face of anthropogenic environmental change. After receiving submissions and proposals ...from organizations and institutions worldwide, ten diverse case studies were chosen to create a cohesive anthology of examples ranging in thematic area, problem-solving approach, ecosystem characteristics, and geographic region. Our freelance Case Study Writer, Hilary Duff, traveled the world in 2018-2019 conducting interviews with stakeholders and organization leads to build this anthology of planetary health stories. These cases invite students to reflect on the pressing realities of people living in vulnerability, the complex connections between people and planet, and how the anthropogenic acts of one generation can reverberate through the next.
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Case Study. The surprising link between logging and healthcare in Indonesia. You can download the teaching material and the case study after filling in a free registration form.
his case study examines a connection between rainforest conservation and affordable healthcare access in communities surr...ounding Gunung Palung National Park (GPNP) in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. It recognizes that human and environmental wellbeing cannot be seen as separate from one another. Specifically, it explores how deforestation impacts human health and well-being, and how implementing co-beneficial solutions can improve human health while protecting natural ecosystems. Finally, this case study highlights the importance of collaboration to achieve planetary health, both within communities and within organizational teams.
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Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) continue to cause hardship and harm to over one billion people worldwide, burdening individuals, families and communities who are already marginalized and disadvantaged. Taking a One Health approach that recognizes the relationship between human, animal, and enviro...nmental health is key to sustainably addressing NTDs. This course provides practical ideas, tools, and examples to enable each of us to take One Health action towards the global goal of substantially reducing the burden of NTDs by 2030.
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Issue Brief No. 29:
Planetary Health is an interdisciplinary academic collective of many scientific disciplines. In addition to the fields of
environmental and social sciences, that of human health is one of many.
Because of the many disciplines involved in this topic and the large number of res...ources available, we would like to
share with you in this Issue Brief the most important documents related to Planetary Health. All of these
documents and many more can be found in the Planetary Health Toolbox
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American cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a severely understudied and neglected“disease of poverty” widespread throughout Peru. Transmission dynamics of CL are complex, requiring sandfly vectors and mammalian reservoir hosts to maintain the pathogen in a local environment whereby incidental hosts... (people) can become infected. We employed a One-Health approach to understand CL transmission in rapidly changing region of northern Peru. We describe the characteristics of 529 CL positive patients from four participating clinics. Using conditional logistic regression, we assessed risk factors of CL for residents of small urban areas through a matched case-control study with 63 patients who had visited one of the same clinics for CL (cases) or other medical reasons (controls). We later enrolled 343 households as part of a community based study occurring in 15 urban and rural areas of Soritor. We
found 256 positive humans (n= 914) as tested via the Montenegro Skin Test; we found 11 positive dogs (n = 236) via an immunofluorescence antibody test. Our results suggest that most- if not all- of CL transmission is occurring in rural areas and that urban women and urban children engage in many high risk activities typically attributed to men. We find evidence that prevalence of past infection is highest among rural residents and men. We believe dogs are unlikely Leishmania reservoirs in either rural or urban settings. It remains unknown if the high number of MST positive children in rural areas is a result of peridomestic or intradomestic transmission.
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To enhance health co-benefits across urban policies which tackle air pollution and climate change, WHO, in cooperation with various international, national, and local partners, implemented the Urban Health Initiative (UHI) pilot project in Accra, Ghana. The Initiative prompted the health sector to u...se its influential position to demonstrate to decision-makers and the public the full range of health, environmental and economic benefits that can be achieved from implementing local emission reduction and energy access policies and strategies. Policy tracking, although not always considered, is a fundamental component of this procedure. It assesses the planning, implementation and progress of a policy to refine or adjust policies with the final objective of increasing the likelihood of the policy being successful. This report is an outcome of the last component of the UHI model process, Policy tracking and monitoring outcomes. The report proposes a framework for tracking urban health policies, with a special focus on the impacts of air quality and energy access on human health and well-being in African countries, giving some examples from the pilot project in Accra. The report also provides resources to survey air quality in cities and other tools to assess public health and the environmental impacts of urban policies and monitor or track their effects.
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