Intersectoral collaboration shaping One Health in the policy agenda: A comparative analysis of Ghana and India

Abstract

Intersectoral collaborations are an integral component of the prevention and control of diseases in a complex health system. On the one hand, One Health (OH) is promoting the establishment of intersectoral collaborations for prevention at the human-animal-environment interface. On the other hand, operationalising OH can only be realized through intersectoral collaborations. This work contributes to broadening the knowledge of the process for operationalising OH by analysing the governance structures behind different initiatives that tackle health problems at the human-animal-environment interface. The cases taken as examples for the analysis are the control and response to rabies and avian influenza under “classical OH”, and the management of floods and droughts for insights into “extended OH”. Data from Ghana and India were collected and compared to identify the key elements that enable ISC for OH. Despite the case studies being heterogeneous in terms of their geographic, economic, social, cultural, and historical contexts, strong similarities were identified on how intersectoral collaborations in OH were initiated, managed, and taken to scale. The actions documented for rabies prevention and control were historically based on one sector being the leader and implementer of activities, while avian influenza management relied more on intersectoral collaborations with clearly defined sectoral responsibilities. The management of the impact of flood and droughts on health provided a good example of intersectoral collaborations achieved by sectoral integration; however, the human health component was only involved in the response stage in the case of Ghana, while for India, there were broader schemes of intersectoral collaborations for prevention, adaptation, and response concerning climate change and disaster.

Global respiratory virus surveillance: strengths, gaps, and way forward

“…NICs are entrusted with the task of conducting national surveillance. However, the national and subnational framework for surveillance of influenza and other respiratory viruses remains weak in most parts of the world because of varying capacities of NICs ( El Guerche-Séblain et al, 2021 ), workforce constraints , inadequate human and veterinary surveillance ( Bailey et al, 2018 ;Rabinowitz et al, 2012 ), poor intersectoral coordination ( Buse et al, 2022 ;Perez Arredondo et al, 2021 ), funding constraints, and low commitments of the local governments ( World Health Organization, 2014 ). Because influenza viruses have the capacity to mutate and evolve rapidly, it is critical to strengthen surveillance at local levels for improving vaccine strain selection and timely detection of untypable or novel human or AIVs, which may lead to outbreaks.…”

Research-Practice-Collaborations Addressing One Health and Urban Transformation. A Case Study

“…“One Health” is a unifying concept at the intersection of humans, animals, and the environment (Zinsstag et al 2005 ). The roots of OH, namely the recognition of health interdependencies between living organisms and their ecosystem, trace back to ancient writings and medical treatises, which gained renewed attention during the enlightenment period for guiding research on diseases transmittable from animals to humans, later evolved towards the modern health approaches in the 21st century when the grounds for comparative medicine were established, and finally fuelled the “One Medicine” notion for public health in the 20th century, focussed on the human–animal interactions (Perez Arredondo et al 2021 ; Bruchhausen 2019 ). At the beginning of the 21st century, the “One Medicine” notion transitioned to OH after the recognition of the role of the environment in the health interdependencies between humans and animals.…”

“…The second narrative considers OH as a unifying approach used for institutional change to address health problems (Zinsstag et al 2005 ; Hitziger et al 2018 ). Finally, the third narrative which is known as the extended OH originated in the transition from “One Medicine” to “One Health”, it includes a complex system perspective to address the ecological, social and political roots of OH problems, while at the same time has set on the quest to balance the normative values of the health of humans, animals, and the environment (Perez Arredondo et al 2021 ; Bardosh et al 2017 ; Degeling et al 2019 ; Coghlan and Coghlan 2018 ).…”

“…In this background, methodological approaches, collaboration strategies, and action programmes to translate OH research into practice flourished with the ongoing movement for operationalizing OH, i.e. “ making the OH concept measurable and understandable” (Perez Arredondo et al 2021 ). It is of relevance that these new developments in the academic literature build on practical OH interventions at different levels, for instance, programmes comprising the assessment of the health burden and cost of zoonotic diseases as well as the implementation of vaccination campaigns to reach simultaneously animals and people (Bechir et al 2004 ; Daugla et al 2004 ; Schelling et al 2004 , 2007 ; Wyss et al 2004 ).…”

Epidemiological Pattern and Trend Analysis of Animal Bite Cases of Anti-Rabies Clinic of Tertiary Care Hospital of Delhi

“…[ 7 ] However, in India, scientific data related to animal bite is mostly uncompiled, unstructured, and irregular till date. [ 8 ]…”