3 out of every 4 new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals.

Why this area?:

Successful public health interventions require the cooperation of human, animal, and environmental health partners. Professionals in human health (doctors, nurses, public health practitioners, epidemiologists), animal health (veterinarians, paraprofessionals, agricultural workers), environment (ecologists, wildlife experts), and other areas of expertise need to communicate, collaborate on, and coordinate activities. Other relevant players in a One Health approach could include the law enforcement, policymakers, agricultural communities, and even pet owners. No one person, organisation, or sector, can address issues at the animal-human-environment interface alone.

What we have done:

One of our initiatives, the PrecisionHealth platform, started off as a COVID-19 waste water surveillance initiative in March 2021 and has partners and projects in the pipeline that will help transform it  into a OneHealth Platform. 

PrecisionHealth is a platform that supports, hosts, and furthers environmental surveillance for public health. The platform is hosted by a multidisciplinary team of  specialist organisations that are some of the best in their category. The most significant initiatives under this platform are the Bengaluru City-wide COVID-19 Surveillance program, and the Genetic Variants Surveillance. 

PrecisionHealth  contributes to city officials’ decision-making on COVID-19 preparedness and response as an early warning system.