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Indonesia welcomes ‘One Health’ concept
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), USAID, Agriculture Ministry and Indonesian Veterinarian Association (PDHI) came together to introduce the “One Health” concept on Thursday.
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Stay alert – A Batam Port Health Office (KKP) worker fumigates around the Batam Center International Port in Batam, Riau Islands, on Aug.31, to eradicate Aedes mosquitoes and to prevent the spread of the Zika virus. (Antara/MN Kanwa)
T
he Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), USAID, Agriculture Ministry and Indonesian Veterinarian Association (PDHI) came together to introduce the “One Health” concept on Thursday.
It is a global, interdisciplinary strategy involving health experts, doctors, veterinarians and epidemiologists to achieve optimal collaboration and communication in all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment.
Indonesia has been identified as a new hot spot of communicable diseases, with Zika and Nipah already being detected in the country, FAO notes. Five human communicable diseases emerge every year with three of those being zoonotic, or transmittable from humans to animals and vice versa.
Country FAO technical advisor Ahmad Gozali said in a seminar in Tangerang that the prevalence of rabies in Bali, East Nusa Tenggara and West Kalimantan as well as anthrax and bird flu, made the concept even more relevant in Indonesia.
“‘One Health’ is a shift from the ‘public health’ concept, which tends to focus on human health over animals. All this time, prevention and control over infectious diseases has not involved animals’ side,” Ahmad said.
He claimed that One Health would allow doctors and veterinarians to respond faster in the event of a new epidemic. (rez)
