The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Department of the Interior (DOI) released the first ever National One Health Framework to Address Zoonotic Diseases and Advance Public Health Preparedness in the United States (NOHF-Zoonoses).
About the One Health approach
Everyday, the world sees examples of diseases spreading between humans, animals, plants, and the shared environment in which they live such as the ongoing H5N1 bird flu multi-state outbreak. The coordination of local, regional, national, and global organizations across public health, health care, epidemiology, and veterinary, environmental health, and agricultural sciences, among others, are required to address health and ecosystem threats across the spectrum.
The national framework will serve as a roadmap for the next five years (2025-2029) to enhance federal coordination and collaboration, inform policies, and improve preparedness and response capabilities in the United States. While this framework focuses on One Health coordination at the federal level, its success depends on robust partnerships with state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies, non-governmental organizations, academia, and private sector partners as well as collaboration with relevant international partners to address the seven strategic goals outlined in the framework:
- Goal #1: Coordination, Collaboration, and Communication - Establishing a formal unit as a common platform and governance structure for addressing One Health needs
- Goal #2: Prevention - To identify and strengthen new and existing opportunities to prevent, detect, and respond to zoonotic diseases
- Goal #3: Preparedness - Strengthening collaborations for preparedness to address existing, emerging, and re-emerging health threats
- Goal #4: Coordinated Outbreak Investigation, Response, and Recovery - To strengthen approaches to these outbreak investigation elements across relevant sectors
- Goal #5: Surveillance - To strengthen capacity for surveillance and information sharing on disease threats across sectors
- Goal #6: Laboratory: Strengthen One Health laboratory - Alongside coordination, research, and lab reporting capabilities for detection of zoonotic disease threats and other One Health issues
- Goal #7: Workforce - To support and expand a qualified One Health workforce
NACCHO’s Work in One Health
- Local Health Department’s One Health Surveillance Approaches to Antimicrobial Resistance - NACCHO spoke with two LHDs, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH), to learn how each LHD has taken a One Health approach to tackling AMR in their community.
- Podcast From Washington: One Health - Dr. Mary-Margaret Fill, Deputy State Epidemiologist for the Tennessee Department of Health discusses the importance of integrating One Health in ongoing prevention, detection, preparedness, and response initiatives and how local public health professionals can incorporate One Health in their planning and response activities.
