PUBH320 - One Health

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Nil

Unit rationale, description and aim

‘One Health recognizes that the health of humans, animals and ecosystems are interconnected. It involves applying a coordinated, collaborative, multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach to address potential or existing risks that originate at the animal-human-ecosystems interface’ (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the One Health Commission).

One Health or planetary health hinges on the ‘symbiotic relationship’ and ‘interconnections between humans, animals, and the environment that we share’. The recent surge in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases that have their origins mainly from animals (zoonotic diseases), often caused by contaminated food, water, or soil, have had major consequences for public health, national economies and potentially on the stability and security of societies. These emerging diseases and their costs to society have re-ignited interest in the drivers of disease, and the need for international cooperation, requiring countries to be alert by developing integrated monitoring and surveillance systems and response capabilities, and prepared to respond in a timely and efficient manner to outbreaks of international concern. One Health, with its focus on the inextricable links between the health of animals (including humans) and the health of the broader ecosystem, calls for a global approach of participation and cooperation, and for inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches (medicine, veterinary medicine, public health, agriculture, and environmental health) for combating threats to health. 

 The aim of this unit is to introduce students to the concepts, theories, frameworks, and relationships that underpin the connections of human, animal, plant and environmental health (One Health), focusing on the health of human populations, b) critically review the impact these interconnections have on the health of human populations, and international and national health systems, and c) ensure students develop skills to plan and develop strategies and interventions to effectively prevent and manage global public health problems that effect population health. A study of One Health will offer students a broader and holistic understanding of population health, stressing the importance of multisectoral and interdisciplinary relationships, and the need to strive for multiple approaches and solutions to population health issues. Case studies and other global examples and resources will be used to illustrate public health problems and solutions (pandemics, contamination of the food chain, climate change, monitoring systems, etc.) that provide a deeper understanding of planetary health.  

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Content

Topics will include

• Definitions – concepts, principles, interpretations, terminology, etc. (zoonoses, One Health, planetary health)
• Origins of One Health (global, national, local) to explain context and situation
• One Health, in relation to specific issues:
• Global emerging infectious diseases/examples and case studies (what are the drivers of disease emergence?)
• Global existing infectious diseases and antibiotic and antiviral resistance (e.g. TB, malaria, Japanese encephalitis, case studies)
• Noncommunicable diseases, including obesity and other diet-related diseases
• Food safety, security, and sustainability
• Actors involved in One Health at international, national, and local levels, including cooperation and collaboration across sectors and disciplines
• Policy, legislative frameworks that underpin One Health (e.g. global agreements and implementation; harmonization of policies and legislation across sectors; human actions that protect and or destroy the environment; human rights)
• Funding of One Health and environmental health
• Relationship between One Health and the environment, and recovery from environmental disruption (natural and human-made disasters): 
• Natural environment: agriculture, mining, and natural landscape
• Built environment: urbanization, urban planning, etc.
• Applying intersectoral and multidisciplinary solutions and strategies (e.g. prevention, preparedness, response and recovery) to manage and improve planetary health
• Links between One Health and Sustainable Development Goals 
• Contemporary health and other substantial challenges through a One Health lens (e.g. infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and non-communicable diseases)
• Multidisciplinary knowledge, research and sharing of information.  

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

Learning and teaching strategies in this unit will include a mix of active learning, individual activities, cooperative group learning, web-based learning, and reflective and critical thinking activities. Specialised topics will include discussions with experts on various topics, site visits and case-based studies. This range of strategies will provide students with appropriate access to required knowledge and understanding of unit content, and opportunities for development of skills relevant to One Health and the complex interrelationships between humans, animals, plants, and their shared environment. These learning and teaching strategies will allow students to meet the aim, learning outcomes and graduate attributes of the unit. They will also enable students to engage in learning activities to facilitate the construction of new knowledge, while respecting the role of the student as an independent learner, responsible for their own learning and participation in set activities.

Assessment strategy and rationale

A range of assessment procedures will be used to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes consistent with university assessment requirements.

There are three assessment tasks, comprising written, oral, and group activities. The assessment strategy allows students to progressively develop their knowledge and skills to a level of sophistication by first understanding the background, context, and origins of One Health, then applying this knowledge to a more comprehensive understanding of the interconnections of the structures and systems of the ecological system. In the third assessment task, this knowledge is further consolidated, requiring students to examine interventions that are required to successfully contain and manage emerging problems or issues in the One Health ecosystem that will lead to improvements in population heath. 

The first assessment task consists of a written paper that requires students to address concepts, principles, frameworks, early developments, and issues arising in One Health and the ecological system.

The second assessment task, building on the first, requires students to critically assess a specific One Health problem/issue that enables students to explore the interconnections between humans, animals, and the environment. 

The third and final assessment task requires students to analyse and evaluate interventions that are required to successfully contain and manage emerging problems or issues in the One Health ecosystem that will lead to improvements in population heath. 

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Atlas, R.M. (2013). One Health: Its origins and future. Current Top. Microbiol. Immunol. 365, 1–13.

Buttigieg, S. C. The One Health Concept: 10 years old and the long road ahead. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 5, Article 14.

CABI. A repository of data, information and knowledge on One Health resources: A transdisciplinary approach. Accessed at https://www.cabi.org/products-and-services/one-health-resources-cabi/

Fisher, M. C. & Murray, K. A. Emerging infections and the integrative environment-health sciences: the road ahead.

Haines, A. (2017). Addressing challenges to human health in the Anthropocene epoch - an overview of the findings of the Rockefeller/Lancet Commission on Planetary Health. International Health, 9, 269–274. doi:10.1093/inthealth/ihx036.

Kaplan, B., Month, T.P.,Woodall, J., Conti, L., Eds.; Springer: Tokyo, Japan, pp. 163–189.

Mackenzie, J.S., McKinnon, M. & Jegou, M. (2014). One Health: From Concept to Practice. In Confronting Emerging Zoonoses: The One Health Paradigm; Yamada, A., Kahn, L.H.,

Mackenzie, J. S. & Jegou, M. (2019). The One Health Approach - Why is it so Important? Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease, 4(88) doi:10.3390/tropicalmed4020088.

Ostin, L. O. & Friedman, E. A. (2015). The Sustainable Development Goals: One-Health in the World’s Development Agenda. JAMA, 314(24). 2621-2622.

Pertinacity, F., Pezzotti, P. & Pantosti, A. (2015). Antimicrobial resistance: a global multifaceted phenomenon, Pathogens and Global Health, 109(7), 309-318.doi:

10.1179/2047773215Y.0000000030

Tait, P. W. (2022). Good governance for planetary and the public’s health. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. 46(2), 101-104. doi: 10.1111/1753-6405.13209.

World Health Organization. (n.d.). Compendium of WHO and other UN guidance on health and environment. At https://www.who.int/tools/compendium-on-health-and-environment