In 2022, the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) endorsed the setting up of the ‘National One Health Mission’
The goals of the ‘National One Health Mission’ are to develop strategies for integrated disease surveillance, joint outbreak response, coordinated research and development (R&D) and ensure seamless information sharing for better control of routine diseases as well as those of a pandemic nature.
Focused R&D can ensure that we are better prepared for emerging diseases through the development of tools such as vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, that is critical for India and the world.
This is where all the participating departments such as the DBT, CSIR, the Indian Council of Medical Research, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Department of Pharmaceuticals will play a role.
It is not just government departments but also academic centres and the private sector that will be the critical stakeholders in making this happen
Under the mission, a national network of high-risk pathogen (Biosafety level or BSL 3 and BSL 4) laboratories has been created.
Bringing such laboratories that are managed by different departments together will serve to address the disease outbreak response better regardless of human, animal and environmental sectors.
There will be better resource utilization of expensive but much-needed infrastructure but also good linking from across sectors better to tackle diseases such as Nipah that involve bats, pigs, and humans, for example
Under the mission, efforts are being made to apply artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning and disease modelling to address these issues and coordinate capacity building in epidemiology across sectors.
‘One Health’ is a global topic.
During India’s presidency of the G-20, this approach was highlighted and widely endorsed by all the members to work together in specific areas such as building better surveillance capacity, analytic capability and setting up an international network of ‘One Health’ institutes
One Health is a holistic approach to problems that recognises the interconnections between the health of humans, animals, plants, and their shared environment.
One Health is not just limited to diseases.
It concerns wider aspects such as antimicrobial resistance, food safety, plant diseases and the impact of climate change on all of these.
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