Introduction: One world, one health

Abstract

Although a One Health perspective has, in one way or another, been around at least since the time of Hippocrates, the term itself was coined by William Karesh in a 2003 The Washington Post article. Since that time, the concept has been discussed, applied, and elaborated in numerous ways. Little, however, has done more to make the concept relevant to global concerns than the Covid-19 pandemic (the third major coronavirus to emerge in this millennium, including SARS and MERS). As is evident in the label, One Health essentially «is an intersectoral and interdisciplinary approach that focuses on where the health of humans, animals and environments or ecosystems converge» (Soares, 2020, p. 652). Although some who write on One Health have argued about definitional issues, such argumentation is not particularly helpful to our discussion at present.