Implications of the One Health Paradigm for Clinical Microbiology

摘要

Clinical microbiologists have a new and unique opportunity to increase our value to health care by broadening how we thinkabout disease processes and asking ourselves what we can do to help resolve a disease, assist in tracking a cause, or even predictan outbreak before it occurs. Human health, animal health (both wildlife and domestic animals), and environmental health are for-ever bound together. The convergence of people, animals, and the environment defines the parameters of One Health and directsattention to the impact this overlap has on public health, disease detection, and control. One Health (sometimes referred to as OneMedicine) is a concept that promotes, improves, and defends the health and well-being of all species through the integration ofthe sciences of human medicine, veterinary medicine, and environmental studies. As microbiologists, we need to be aware of thisOne Health concept and how it can positively impact our profession by allowing us to be more productive members of the healthcare team. There are several things we can do to get started. We can review organism pathogenicity and evaluate and question testresults that may signal an unusual event or process that led to a disease. We can be alert to the epidemiologic potential of organismisolates from patients as they may apply to infection controlorcommunity epidemiology. We can become familiar with the zoo-notic diseases and recognize the etiologic agents associated witch wjld and domestic animals and apply that knowledge to our diag-nostic skills. As we further understand the "big picture"ofOne Health, we can ask strategic questions that can lead us to providefurther technical assistance to facilitate earlier interventions that lead to positive patient outcomes and ultimately healthier popula-tions. In human medicine, we generally work with one. species of animal. Veterinarians work with all the rest. It is time to commu-nicate with and learn from our veterinary clinical microbiology colleagues and begin to understand the critical nature of the human,animal, and environment interface. This is our opportunity to be at the front of this line and not stand on the sidelines watching.