Dear Colleagues,

The World has been faced with many challenges of unprecedented level in recent times. Most of these are a result of our interaction and participation with nature. Human wellbeing has suffered because of this and as we continue to hide our heads in the sand, the situation worsens. This therefore calls for novel approaches to the problems of health and wellbeing in general.

Taking the recent COVID 19 pandemic, the adoption of a one health approach to disease should have been the key. For management of pandemics a One Health approach can be efficient and cost-effective. This is because One Health approaches comprise cross-disciplinary collaborations and interdisciplinary interventions involving veterinary, medical, ecological and public health authorities and its importance is undisputed in the control of complex zoonotic diseases. The introduction of the One Health initiative has provided international agencies i.e. the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Organization for Animal Health (OIE), World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, with a vehicle for interinstitutional and interdisciplinary collaboration to address the threat of emerging zoonotic diseases, and come to the table in the search for solutions. Poor strategies for disease control usually result in avoidable deaths amongst vulnerable populations and this usually stems from a lack of co-ordination.

Animal health therefore plays a very great and unavoidable role in the general picture of human wellbeing whether we decide to take notice or not. I hereby posit that in order to have a complete health and wellbeing situation, one health approach to all matters concerning health should be incorporated in our lives. Animal health should be taken to be an integral part of the general health and wellbeing of man. The complexities of zoonotic diseases have dictated that looking at the animal health as paramount could be the difference in the likelihood of occurrence of the next pandemic.

Dr. Simon Peter Musinguzi

Section Editor