‘One Health' expert panel

• WHO has formed a high-level expert panel ‘One Health’ to study the emergence and spread of zoonotic diseases like H5N1, Ebola, Zika and possibly the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
• This panel will advise global agencies on how future outbreaks, especially due to zoonotic diseases, can be averted.
• It will also develop a surveillance framework and global action plan for the same.

What is the 'One Health' concept?

• It is a collaborative effort of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally, to attain optimal health for people, animals, and our environment, as defined by the One Health Initiative Task Force.
• It facilitates an interdisciplinary approach in disease control so as to control emerging and existing zoonotic threats.

What are zoonotic diseases?

• The word ‘Zoonosis’ was introduced by Rudolf Virchow in 1880 to include collectively the diseases shared in nature by man and animals.
• Later WHO in 1959 defined that Zoonoses are those diseases and infections which are naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and man.
• Zoonoses may be bacterial, viral, or parasitic, or may involve unconventional agents.