One World, One Health – Tackling the Superbug Challenge

Humans, animals, plants and the environment we all share face escalating risks from antimicrobial resistance (AMR), with the potential for irreversible damage ever more likely. Both our health and the health of the planet are at stake, says a leading champion for more action.

We know what to do. One Health thinking has been with us for as long as the European Health Forum Gastein, which celebrated its 25th anniversary at last week’s annual meeting. But the COVID-19 pandemic has loudly proclaimed this to be an even greater imperative by underlining the interplay between human behaviour, public health and economic development as never before. What’s required now is for the global community to put health – human, animal and environmental – at the core of policy-making.

The G7 summit in Elmau a few months ago recognised this imperative with a commitment “to work in partnership to strengthen health systems worldwide and step up our efforts in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response under the One Health approach”. The G7 leaders included AMR in their final communiqué, promising to “spare no efforts to continue addressing this silent pandemic.”