The One Health framework recognizes that the health of people, animals, and the environment is deeply interconnected. It is not an abstraction: an estimated 60% of emerging infectious diseases in humans originate in animals.
The examples are familiar. Ebola, novel influenza strains, rabies, and SARS-CoV-2 all crossed from animals to people. Where humans, wildlife, and livestock increasingly overlap, the opportunities for spillover multiply.
Antimicrobial resistance is a One Health problem too, moving among humans, animals, and the environment through shared use of antimicrobials and shared ecosystems.
Meeting these threats requires surveillance and cooperation that cross traditional boundaries between human medicine, veterinary medicine, and environmental science. Infections do not respect those boundaries, and neither can our response.