BY ALLISON KOZICHAROW; EDITED BY BERNICE BORN
(Archived story. Original version is here.)
November 3, 2018, is One Health Day. One Health Day reminds us of the critical link among humans, animals and the environment we all share. It further reminds us that to address the health of human populations, we must also address the health of animals and of the planet that hosts all living things.
Conditions of a fast-changing global environment have accelerated how humans and animals interact, changed where they interact and altered the health implications of their encounters. Climate change’s impacts hit hardest in the world’s underserved communities where WiRED provides health education. WiRED is ever mindful of the social and environmental determinants of good health, which are access to medical care, clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter.
At present, WiRED frames the training modules in our Health Learning Center within this delicate balance. Within the next year, WiRED will incorporate the One Health theme into a large project that creates a community health worker training program for low-resource areas. These regions often suffer the greatest impact from the changing climate and its resulting effect on humans and animals. The structure and content of our training program will reflect the vulnerabilities of these frontline communities.
|Factor (Cause)||Change (Effect)|
|Human populations are growing and expanding into new geographic areas.||As a result, more people live in close contact with wild and domestic animals. Close contact provides more opportunities for diseases to pass between animals and people.|
|The earth has experienced changes in climate and land use, such as deforestation and intensive farming practices.||Disruptions in environmental conditions and habitats provide new opportunities for diseases to pass to animals.|
|International travel and trade have increased.||As a result, diseases can spread quickly across the globe.|