Public Policies and One Health in Brazil: The Challenge of the Disarticulation.

Isis De Freitas Espeschit,Maria Aparecida Scatamburlo Moreira,Clara Marques Santana

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.644748

Isis De Freitas Espeschit, Maria Aparecida Scatamburlo Moreira + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.644748

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Abstract

Working the One health strategy in developing countries is a challenge, due to structural weaknesses or deprivation of financial, human, and material resources. Brazil has policies and programs that would allow continuous and systematic monitoring of human, animal, and environmental health, recommending strategies for control and prevention. For animals, there are components of the Epidemiological Surveillance of zoonosis and Animal Health Programs. To guarantee food safety, there are Health Surveillance services and support of the Agropecuary Defense in the inspection of these products, productive environments, and their inputs. Environmental Surveillance Services monitor water and air quality, which may influence health. For human health, these and other services related to Health Surveillance, such as Worker Health and Epidemiological Surveillance, which has a training program responsible for forming professionals groups to respond effectively to emergencies in public health are available. Therefore, Brazil has instruments that may allow integrated planning and intervention based on the One Health initiative. However, the consolidation of this faces several challenges, such as insufficient resources, professional alienation, and lack of the recognition of the importance of animal and environmental health for the maintenance of human and planetary well-being. This culminates in disarticulation, lack of communication, and integration between organizations. Thus, efforts to share attributions and responsibilities must be consolidated, overcoming the verticality of the actions, promoting efficiency and effectiveness. Finally, this perspective aims to describe the government instruments that constitute potential national efforts and the challenges for the consolidation of the One Health initiative in Brazil.

Highlights

One Health is an integrative and cooperative health initiative, with a transdisciplinary approach to health promotion and surveillance at the local, regional, national or global level, aiming to achieve optimal health conditions, given the recognition of the interconnection and interdependence between human, animals, and the environment [1, 2].Brasil’s One Health: The disarticulationHistorically, the perspective that environmental health affects humans has existed since the classical era
In the 19th century, pathologist Robert Virchow coined the term “zoonosis,” to name diseases transmitted from animals to humans, based on his observations with helminths, believing that there is no separation between animal and human health [5, 6]
The importance of the policies and operationalization referred in this perspective article is acknowledged, but several challenges are found for the consolidation of its potential, the main ones being the disarticulation, the verticality of the actions, and the overlapping of attributions [1,2,3,4,5]

Summary

INTRODUCTION

One Health is an integrative and cooperative health initiative, with a transdisciplinary approach to health promotion and surveillance at the local, regional, national or global level, aiming to achieve optimal health conditions, given the recognition of the interconnection and interdependence between human, animals, and the environment [1, 2]. The Sanitary Surveillance System, coordinated by ANVISA, the national agency for Sanitary Surveillance, works in the regulation, control, and inspection of goods, products, and environments that are directly or indirectly related to health conditions, from production to consumption It is recognized as a set of integrated institutional, administrative, programmatic, and social strategies, guided by public policies that aim the elimination, reduction, or prevention of individual and collective health risks, based on comprehensive services and actions that are essential to the health defense and promotion. The programs and services presented have the potential for the insertion of the multidisciplinary and integrative approach of One Health, with intra and intersectoral collaboration Tis approach is appropriate to the current context of growing concerns about the consequences of the interactions between humans, animals, and the environment, in a productive framework based on capitalist ideals [58, 59, 67,68,69]

DISCUSSION

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT