One World One Health: Widening horizons

Abstract

Mid-20th century (1940s-1950s) marks the era of celebration of antimicrobials. This was the time when we started thinking that we had overcome the microbes. We also believed whatever microbes we perceived as pathogens, were the only ones we needed to consider - the idea of microbial fixity1. During this period, International Health Regulations (IHR, 1969)2 considered three diseases as notifiable - yellow fever, plague and cholera. However, HIV/AIDS was the first rude shock to wake us up from this reverie. Antimicrobial resistance, growing all over the globe as a silent storm, began to make its presence felt as well. Then we had ‘Bird flu’ and the ‘Ebola’ and ‘Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome’ (SARS), while the old foes continued to demonstrate their might. Consequently, the World Health Organization (WHO) had to modify the IHR 1969 in 2005 to include any public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) as notifiable2. One hundred and ninety three Member States of WHO committed themselves to set up surveillance mechanisms to speedily recognize the early signals of possible emergence of new and resurging infections.