“One Health” provides a coordinated approach to counter emerging infectious disease threats at the interface of animal, human, and environment health.  The approach brings together disciplines such as medicine, veterinary medicine, public health, and environmental and ecosystem health to more effectively address emerging zoonotic infectious disease challenges. On March 10-11, USAID supported a training for 68 health and veterinary staff from Phu Luong and Pho Yen districts in Thai Nguyen province on applying One Health Core Competencies in disease prevention and control. Participants learned how to apply eight One Health core competencies to develop zoonotic disease prevention and control plans. Examples of core competencies include planning and management, systems thinking, epidemiology, and principles of outbreak investigation.

So What? Through trainings like this, USAID is strengthening the human resource capacity of the future One Health workforce in preventing and responding to infectious disease threats. This will help reduce the serious risks of infectious disease spillover at the One Health interfaces, and subsequent epidemic spread.