Look at a cause for the current crisis

Kate Schwartz

Special to Village News

As people emerge from their collective state of shock over the past weeks, trying to process the sudden loss of their usual sense of safety and security.

One Health Initiative, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, offered an explanation. The cause could lie in the way the human species treats and exploits other species.

Recent disruptions in environmental conditions and habitats, as well as animal exploitation, provide new opportunities for diseases to be passed from animal species to humans. These are called zoonotic diseases.

With the spread of live, wet animal markets – meaning the slaughter of live animals at open food markets – the animal agriculture industry, as well as human encroachment into wildlife habitats, and the exotic wildlife trade – zoonotic diseases have been responsible for historical and recent epidemics and pandemics, such as: the 1918 flu pandemic which killed hundreds of thousands in the U.S. alone, anthrax, Lyme disease, the 2009 swine flu, West Nile virus, SARS, H1N1, Zika, Ebola and COVID-19, among others.

One Health recognizes the connection between the health of people, animals and the environment and how they are inextricably connected.

One Health is a multidisciplinary approach that recognizes that the health of humanity is relative to the health of animal species and the shared environment and a collaborative effort of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment.

For more information, visit https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/index.html.