Human-animal health link of Ebola.

• Position: Zoonotic Diseases

For many individuals, global public health seems like an abstract and distant problem--until the Ebola virus is diagnosed among people in our midst. Though no one would call the Ebola pandemic a good thing, it has presented an opportunity for scientists to alert the public about the dire need to halt the spread of infectious diseases, especially in developing and densely populated areas of the world.

"What often seems like an abstract notion becomes very concrete when a deadly virus previously contained in Western Africa infects people on American soil," says Wondwossen Gebreyes, professor of veterinary preventive medicine at Ohio State University, Columbus. "It does create a certain sense of urgency and awareness that this world is much smaller than we think."

Gebreyes stresses the importance of accelerating efforts to put "One Health"--a strategy to understand and address more fully the links among animal health, human health, and the environment--into action. Zoonotic infections--those transmitted from animals to humans--can cause a staggering amount of damage, especially in developing nations that lack a variety of resources. These diseases do not just kill people, they cause tremendous economic harm in a variety of ways: killing livestock, reducing the ranks of qualified health and education providers, creating political unrest, and stopping development in its tracks.

There is an urgent need for...