It is a great pleasure to present to you a new issue of our regular newsletter. The current issue on "From one medicine to one health" addresses a key area of global and international public health. The concept of "one medicine", was introduced by Calvin Schwabe in the 1960s, and entails the study of health and disease regardless of species differences between humans and animals - it harmonically brings together human and veterinary medicine.
Confronted with zoonotic diseases problems and the aim to improve health systems for nomadic pastoralist populations in the Sahelian belt as well as in central Asia, the Swiss Tropical Institute implemented and comprehensively validated Schwabe's concept over the past ten years. The newsletter reports some of the key findings and the plans for the future. Combining human and veterinary approaches to address emerging/re-emerging zoonotic diseases problems - bird flu, Nipah virus and SARS are recent typical examples - and to improve health systems for pastoralist populations (currently some 50-100 millions worldwide) leads to an integrated “one health” perspective that can strengthen health systems by implementing novel joint animal and human health services as evidenced for vaccination programs in the Sahel.
Moreover, it is an approach to enhance early detection of zoonoses through inter-sectorial surveillance and allows, when effectively complemented by economic analyses a broader view on health system priorities and best possible cost-effective and cost-beneficial interventions. Moving through scientific approaches from a concept of "one medicine" to "One Health", we now apply "one health" as an important strategy for improving health and well-being and, thus, to contribute to the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals. We wish you an enjoyable reading and are always happy to learn your comments and feedback.
