One Health, One World 　― Toward the formation of the first hub of One Health, One world

Recent outbreaks of COVID-19, Monkeypox, SARS, Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, Nipah infectious disease, Avian influenza, etc., remind us that human and animal health are intimately connected.

In September, 2004, health experts from around the world met for a symposium hosted by The Rockefeller University that focused on the current and potential movements of diseases among human, domestic animals, and wildlife populations. Representatives included specialists from WHO, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, CDC, the United States Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre, the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law, and others.

The rise of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases threatens not only humans but also animals and plants, which are the critically needed biodiversity supporting the living infrastructure of the world. Phenomena such as habitat degradation, pollution, changes in animal and plant ecosystems, and global climate change are fundamentally altering life on our planet. Through the discussion in the symposium, we realized that for winning the disease battles, interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approaches to disease prevention, surveillance, monitoring, control as well as to environmental conservation more broadly are required. The product of the symposium was the Manhattan Principles on “One World, One Health”.

After the symposium, organizations such as One Health Office in CDD, NPO One Health Commission, One Health initiative in the US, and One health Umbrella in the EU were established. These organizations are currently actively carrying out One Health, One World international activities and collaborating each other. No organization has yet been established in Asia so far. Therefore, we established the collaboration organization for the One Health, One World in the University of Tokyo in Japan as the base in Asia (the first Director is Professor Wataru Takeuchi). We would like to make an international contribution through the collaboration of Asian researchers in a wide range of fields related to human and animal health and the environment.