As the global population grows and human innovations abound, the world becomes a smaller yet more complex place. With sufficient resources, one can get to almost any point in the world in some 48 hours. With this mobility, ideas and commerce move rapidly. Along with them, infections and vectors of disease hitchhike rides.  Nowhere is free of health-related ailments that are driven by multiple factors that include people and animals, and how we are interacting with or are affected by the environment. Within the past year alone, concern about transboundary infectious disease outbreaks, food safety and security, and the impact of climate change on health has been omnipresent in the news.

Cornell University is helping to turn the tide by teaching and practicing public health from One Health and Planetary Health perspectives.

Source: www.cdc.gov/about/cdc-in-brief/images/2015/map_555px.jpg

The field of public health seeks to mitigate the ill-effects of globalization through interventions tailored to the specific challenges. Notable public health interventions may focus on diagnostic and screening tools, vaccination practices, and water quality standards, among many others. As a whole, public health speaks to a collective commitment to disease prevention, health promotion and the preservation of life within healthy communities and takes a systems-perspective to consider and address the factors that influence these outcomes.

One Health is a paradigm that takes public health a step further and helps practitioners focus on the multiple and inextricable relationships between humans, animals, and the environment, and the impact those relationships have on the health of populations. A One Health approach recognizes that in order to ensure the public’s health around the globe, we must work together and draw from the best practices of complementary disciplines, including veterinary medicine, human medicine, environmental sciences, agricultural sciences, social sciences, etc.

The Planetary Health paradigm (as defined in by The Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health report which was co-authored by Cornell’s Steve Osofsky and the Planetary Health Alliance) complements and envelops public health and one health as it helps us to understand how humans’ actions within our environment ultimately impact our health—and especially our health in the future.

When public health issues arise, we must fully understand their causes and develop comprehensive interventions that consider the many influencing factors. Given that our community is now our world, integrated public health, or Planetary Health, is more important than ever.

Cornell University as a whole exemplifies One Health and Planetary Health through cutting-edge research and innovation working across animal, human, and environmental disciplines, as well as its commitment to sustainability and community engagement for impact. We seek to change the world. Won’t you join us?

Post by Gen Meredith, Associate Director, Cornell MPH Program