One Health approach and Coronavirus Disease 2019.

Dear Editor,

The concept of One Health has been with us for many years.[1] In the past and even in recent times, communicable and non-communicable diseases have killed millions of people worldwide. In resource-limited countries, the burden of disease mortality and morbidity has been very high.[2] In December 2019, a novel 2019-new Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak was reported in Wuhan, a major city of Hubei province in China.[3] Later on, the World Health Organization (WHO) named the disease as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

In a very short time, the disease spread very quickly and reached almost every part of China. Due to mass migration at that time for the Chinese New Year festival, the virus jumped outside of China and cases and deaths have been reported in other countries.[4] As of 27 February, 2020, Nanjing Time 06:39 PM, the total number of confirmed cases reached to 82,171 worldwide, of which 95.53% (78,497/82,171) cases were reported in Mainland China. Globally, the total number of deaths was reported 2,804, of which 94.19% (2,641/2,804) was reported in Hubei province, China. The overall fatality rate is 3.41% (2,804/82,171). Outside China, a total of 49 countries/regions reported cases of COVID-19. The countries reported more than 50 COVID-19 cases are South Korea (1,595), Japan (894) including cases on “Diamond Princes” cruise ship (705), Italy (453), Iran (141), Singapore (93), Hong Kong (92), and United States (60). The countries reported highest numbers of deaths outside China are Iran (22), South Korea (13), and Italy (12).[5]

The Chinese government took some serious decisions, banning Wuhan city and other areas for public transportation, markets, and movement of peoples, and built two hospitals within ten days. However, despite all of these steps, the disease went out of control, and government and health authorities are facing some serious challenges. The One Health approach should be of great interest and should prove effective to control and stop further spread of the deadly COVID-19. The One Health model is presented in Figure 1. The One Health approach should minimize the economic burden of disease and improve understanding of disease mechanism, health problems, disease emergence and reemergence in order to respond in a proportionate and timely manner, thereby detecting, preventing, and combating future pandemics based on experience from COVID-19 outbreak. Maintain good health, and practicing proper hygiene is very helpful to prevent infection and avoid being exposed to the COVID-19. The One Health approach should minimize the economic burden of disease and improve understanding of disease mechanism, health problems, disease emergence, and reemergence in order to respond in a proportionate and timely manner, thereby detecting, preventing, and combating future pandemics based on experience from 2019-nCoV. Maintaining good health and practicing proper hygiene are very helpful to prevent infection and avoid being exposed to the 2019-nCoV.

Figure 1.

One Health Approach Model (Modified from Center for Disease Control and Prevention).