One Health is a collaborative, multisectoral, and trans-disciplinary approach — working at the local, regional, national, and global levels — with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment. November 3, 2021, marks the sixth annual One Health Day, a global campaign to promote the need for a One Health approach to address health threats shared among people, animals, plants, and our shared environment. One Health recognizes the close connection between the health of people, animals, and our shared environment and the role this connection plays in the emergence of new diseases. As we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become clear that responding to public health emergencies like COVID-19 requires One Health collaboration across the human health, animal health, and environmental spectrum. Working together allows us to have the biggest impact on improving health for people, animals, plants, and our shared environment. You can celebrate One Health Day every day by committing to working with experts in other sectors to achieve better health outcomes for all. Support One Health Day with these CDC Resources:
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Find updates about One Health, new resources, and more on CDC’s website and follow @CDC_NCEZID on Twitter.
Key Messages
- One Health is an approach that recognizes that the health of people is closely connected to the health of animals and our shared environment.
- One Health is not a new concept, but it has become more important in recent years. This is because many factors have changed interactions between people, animals, and our environment. These changes have led to the emergence and reemergence of zoonotic diseases.
- Zoonotic diseases can be spread between animals and people. More than half of all infections that people can get are zoonotic.
- One Health is a team sport. A successful One Health approach to public health involves many experts working together to improve the health of people, animals — including pets, livestock, and wildlife – plants, and the environment.
- A One Health approach works because it addresses health threats from all possible angles: human, animal, and environmental. By protecting one, we help protect all.
- A One Health approach can help address many kinds of public health threats, including zoonotic diseases, antibiotic resistance, vector-borne diseases, food safety and security, chronic disease, mental health, and more.
- Communication, coordination, and collaboration among partners working in animal, human, and environmental health as well as other relevant areas are an essential part of the One Health approach. Working together allows us to have the biggest impact on improving health for both people and animals living in a shared environment.
- The COVID-19 pandemic is an example of a disease emerging as a result of close contact between animals and people. A One Health approach recognizes the close connection between the health of people, animals, and the environment and the role this connection plays in the emergence of new diseases.
- Fighting disease threats like COVID-19 requires One Health collaboration across the human health, animal health, and environmental spectrum. No one person, organization, or sector alone can effectively address diseases at the human-animal-environment interface.
