English Summary #2

Recently, some have argued that there has been a turning point in how we understand public health. Whereas previously well-being was thought of in a primarily one-sided fashion, as an effort which was entirely centered around providing better health services for people, now many are trying to expand the view of health. One such ideology attempting to do so is the idea of One Health, an approach which calls for “the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally, to attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment.” It is an idea which attempts to draw connections between the well-being of people and the well-being of the natural world around them. It was on this approach that Dr. Klaas Dietze gave his speech on March 28th, 2023, as part of the Zeitenwende Ring Lecture at Hochschule Mittweida. In this speech, Dr. Dietze outlined a basic overview of the history and ideas of One Health, as well as how these ideas could be implemented to create a healthier world.

First of all, it is important to have an understanding of the events of the last few years which have led many to this new understanding. From 2016 to 2019, the world was dealt a number of political surprises with the election of Donald Trump in the United States and the successful vote for Brexit in the United Kingdom, while also dealing with issues surrounding pollution of the environment and a general increase in political divisions. 2020 was a particularly impactful year, especially in regard to public health. In that one year, the world saw the beginning of the Coronavirus for most of the world, as well as the completion of Brexit, the tumultuous 2020 election in the United States, mass shootings, hoarding of medical supplies, and the general economic repercussions and social upheaval resulting from nation-wide lockdowns across many countries. In the current year of 2023, the human race has had to deal with the War in Ukraine (as well as the serious threat of war in other areas of the globe, such as Taiwan), social divisions, economic strife, inflation, the rise of artificial intelligence, and further worries of climate change. It is in this situation that One Health has emerged as a popular approach to our understanding of health.

While One Health has grown in popularity in recent years, it is important to understand its origins. It was at this point in his speech that Dr. Klaas Dietze gave a brief history of the individuals who can be seen as the inspiration for the modern One Health movement in Germany, bacteriologist Friedrich Loeffler and microbiologist Robert Koch. Friedrich Loeffler was an early hygienist who is known for his study of the nature of bacteria and his advocation for the improvement of hygiene in cities, while Robert Koch was a physician who famously discovered the causative agents of diseases like tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax. To this day, Friedrich Loeffler work is carried on by an institute bearing his name, while Robert Koch is still remembered as a great physician. It was great men such as them that laid the foundation of our modern understanding of health.

With this understanding, it is important to pivot to the modern idea of One Health. The primary focal point of initiatives centered around the idea of One Health is the focus on our environment. In this view, resources must be allocated at local, national, and international levels in order to preserve the health of humans, animals, and the environment as a whole. A large amount of emphasis is placed on studying and preventing zoonotic diseases, which are diseases that begin in animals but can spread to humans. The Avian Flu is one of the most well-known zoonotic diseases, and can infect both birds and humans, posing a significant health risk to both.

Recently, the disease has seen significant outbreaks in 2014, 2020, 2022, and 2023. Another dangerous virus covered by Dr. Dietze was the African Swine Fever Virus. While unable to infect humans, it poses a significant risk to the local agricultural sector, as it is highly contagious, has extremely high death rates among infected animals, and has no known cure or treatment. Understanding and preventing these types of diseases is one of the highest priorities of the One Health movement. Prevention is primarily achieved through improved research and development in specialized laboratories such as the Island of Riems, the so-called “Alcatraz for viruses,” an island off the coast of Germany which serves as a major hub for research of zoonotic diseases and development for new, modern treatments.

“One Health initiatives will often fail but are still worth it.” This was a point that Dr. Dietze made early on in his speech at the Ring Lecture at Hochschule Mittweida. Creating the global infrastructure necessary for a complete restructuring of our understanding of public health is a herculean task, and achieving such optimistic goals does not always turn out to be practical. Despite this, in the eyes of One Health’s proponents, it is vital to push society in a direction of better health and understanding, in terms of our treatment of animals and environment around us. And even though some initiatives fail, many others are wild successes, such as the development of the disease center on Riems. Looking back at all of the turmoil of the last half decade of global events, it is easy to understand why One Health has become such a popular idea. The ideas of this movement have a use before, during, and after an outbreak, and components of One Health can also be seen in almost every major crisis of the past few years. Hopefully, by adopting these new initiatives, we can work together to better prepare for and counter the problems we face as a species.