Human, animal and environment - One Health in the new “InFact” magazine
„[…] We cannot consider human health in isolation. It is closely intertwined with the environment and the animal world, everything is interrelated," Prof. Dr. Fabian Leendertz
The new issue of the “InFact” from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research focuses on the one health research approach and reports on the work of Prof. Dr. Fabian Leendertz, Founding Director of the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH) in Greifswald. Leendertz investigated zoonoses in the rainforest of Côte d'Ivoire as part of his doctoral thesis. While working at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), he was involved in the BIODIV-AFREID project.
One Health
One health uses a holistic approach and acknowledges that human, animal and environmental health are interdependent. The main goal of one health is prevention and pandemic preparedness. In order to achieve this goal, knowledge and know-how from very various fields are required. For this reason, human and veterinary medicine, microbiology, virology, epidemiology, pharmaceutical research, biodiversity research, ecology, evolutionary biology, anthropology and sociology work hand in hand at the HIOH to further elucidate the field. The task of one health research is to monitor dangerous pathogens and identify possible risks from early onwards, to advance vaccine and pharmaceutical research, and to contribute to improving medical care through individual educational work.
