One Health approach to improve animal and human health
WHO
A national workshop on zoonotic disease was held in Baku, Azerbaijan on 13–14 March 2014 entitled “Country perspectives on IHR/PVS assessments and roadmap for better intersectoral collaboration among animal and human health sectors”.
The workshop provided an opportunity for representatives of human and animal health services of Azerbaijan to share their views and results from country assessments conducted in the human health (International Health Regulations) and animal health (Performance of Veterinary Service Pathway) monitoring sectors. The workshop also aimed to improve dialogue, coordination and collaboration between animal and human health sectors in order to strategically plan areas for joint action to prevent, detect and control contagious diseases that cross the animal and human divide.
International project to facilitate greater synergy
The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and WHO are currently working on the development of an operational guide to encourage and facilitate a One Health approach to managing animal and zoonotic diseases. The aim is to increase the capacity of countries to address priority diseases, including zoonoses, and build synergies among animal and human health systems. The project is financially supported by the World Bank (WB) and the European Union.
The guide will map existing OIE and WHO tools and mechanisms and share the experiences of countries that have already shown evidence of taking ownership of the outcomes of the OIE Performance of Veterinary Service (PVS) Pathway.
Considering its strong involvement in the OIE PVS Pathway, Azerbaijan was selected as a candidate country to host a national workshop for the preparation of this guide.
