The number of emerging infectious disease (EID) outbreaks have been growing per year. Human activity is the main driving force behind new, emerging, and re-emerging diseases. Most pathogens that are infectious to humans are zoonotic, i.e., they cross-over from animals to people. Human encroachment on natural habitats disturb the ecological equilibrium, which results in the spillover of animal microbes into human populations. Growing demand for animal-sourced foods has increased the opportunities for crossover of pathogens. Every year, these diseases cause more than 1 billion human infections and 1 million deaths. The EID outbreaks' average annual rate is 6.7 percent. 

COVID-19 sparked a global health, economic, and societal emergency unlike any other emergency in recent history. It killed more than 6.3 million people as of June 2022, on record with mortality numbers continuing to rise. The IMF projected the cumulative output loss from the pandemic through to 2024 to be about $13.8 trillion. 

Risk Anywhere Is Risk Everywhere: One Health

Prevention is better than cure. Prevention requires an integrated, risk-based approach to prioritise "spillover hot spots", & ensure "compliance with international health standards".

The World Bank’s latest report, "Putting Pandemics Behind Us: Investing in One Health to Reduce Risks of Emerging Infectious Diseases," is a call for the universal adoption of an integrated approach to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals, and ecosystems. 

One Health is an integrated approach that supports a wide range of sustainable development objectives with significant co-benefits in areas such as agriculture, food production, and environmental protection. For example, a One Health approach to prevention by reducing deforestation would generate benefits of $4.3 billion from lower carbon dioxide emissions. 

Many activities that drive EIDs (such as the mining and extractive industries) also contribute to the economic output of a country. This makes it difficult to curtail such activities, particularly in high-risk regions that struggle with low growth and socio-economic disparity. One Health holistic investment framework will help governments, international organisations, and donors direct financial resources to prevent pandemics. The “One Health” approach recognizes that animal, human and planetary health are interconnected. 

Successful implementation of One Health will require improved coordination, communication, and collaboration between sectors. It would require a shift from largely vertical programs focused on specific diseases to those that can strengthen overall systems, by engaging stakeholders beyond the health sector such as livestock keepers, park rangers, industries, and communities responsible for environmental stewardship. One Health is attracting India, China and many other countries. 

The cost of prevention is moderate compared to the cost of managing and responding to pandemics. According to World Bank, the global estimate of prevention costs based on One Health principles ranges from $10.3 billion to $11.5 billion per year, compared to the cost of managing pandemics which amounts to about $30.1 billion per year (according to the recent estimate by the G20 Joint Finance and Health Taskforce). 

While the costs of SARS, H1N1 or Ebola were in the billion, the global economy contracted by 4.3% in 2020 due to COVID-19. That amounts to about $3.6 trillion worth of goods, services and other output lost. This does not include the many different ways people suffered the downturn, through death, illness, loss of livelihood or disruption of schooling, for example. 

The solutions are in our hands because EIDs are mainly the result of human interactions with animals and the environment, prevention is also within human means. 

https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/staying-focused-one-health-prevent-next-pandemic

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2022/10/24/one-health-approach-can-prevent-the-next-pandemic

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/agriculture/brief/safeguarding-animal-human-and-ecosystem-health-one-health-at-the-world-bank

One Health By World Bank

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