It is in this struggle that humanity engages in continuous struggles against emerging viral infections, where interdependence most strikingly shows up between human, animal, and environmental health. The way forward in the face of the complex challenges brought about by zoonotic diseases can potentially be offered by a more wholesome, comprehensive One Health approach. The One Health framework could trigger transdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration, enabling enhancements in prevention, detection, and response to infectious diseases of possible zoonotic origin and thereby enhancing global public health security. This paper reviews and discusses the contribution of a “One Health” approach to fighting emerging viral infections. It aims at providing key points and updates from recent research on the subject at hand, understanding the “One Health” concept.
The concept of one health comes from an appreciation of the fact that human health, animal health, and the environment cannot be separated. One Health is, therefore, multi-disciplinary, integrating human medicine with veterinary medicine together with environmental science in devising effective solutions in cases where challenges are at the interface of all these. Added to that, this integrative approach is further driven home by the fact that the viruses causing COVID-19, SARS, and MERS are of zoonotic origin and have been shown to be capable of producing high levels of morbidity and mortality in humans.
Epidemiologic research remains the keystone to the One Health picture in monitoring, understanding the distribution of infectious diseases, and detecting trends, along with alerting risk factors for the spread of infectious diseases. According to several works, the origin of most emerging zoonoses is usually in wildlife, and only after hosts act as intermediates does the path reach humans—either by direct or aerosol contact. For example, COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, presumed to originate from bats and probably entering humans through an intermediate host, like pangolins. An epidemiology study about these diseases presents knowledge for targeted intervention in preventive measures.
The only way to determine methods of treatment and prevention was to investigate how these zoonotic viruses interact with host organisms and what their pathogenesis is. SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV are now known to unveil the intricate mechanisms by which the virus adapts to human hosts; shortly afterward, it can evade the immune responses such hosts develop. The surface proteins on this virus are called spike proteins and are accountable for infecting human cells. Such information regarding the structure and function of these proteins can be applied by scientists in developing vaccines or antiviral therapy that would block the entry and self-replication of viruses.