One body, one globe, one health

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Mr. Ashraf Harun Mahmoud, a third-year university student in Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College, Faculty of Medicine located in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. He is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

The best virtue that we all can possess is humanity- the devotion to human life, humankind, despite races, gender, culture, socio-economic status, and other differences that exist between us. The idea of differences is to appreciate, and learn from one another, and in turn cooperate, and act as a single entity-one body.

The interconnectedness that can be formed with humanity provides multiple dimensions in solving problems that affect us all. The idea of togetherness in difficult times and in beautiful moments brings different parts of the world into a one-one globe.

The global health agenda aims at mitigating all issues that threaten the health of the globe-be its environmental health, food health, animal health, and human health. Health as a multi-dimensional concept can be expressed in terms of physical, mental, spiritual, social, and economic aspects whereas different health stakeholders can play certain roles in the health sector of society.

As far as humanity is concerned, any problem affecting a certain part of the globe is a problem to all-even if the part affected is not habited by one. Humanity in turn can bring people as one, make them behave as one, and make them live as one.

The approach whereby health problems are addressed collaboratively, across different disciplines, by different sectors of the society is termed as the One Health Approach. Different bodies or organizations exist in the world to encourage a one-health approach to health problems.

The emergence of health problems like antimicrobial resistance and the COVID-19 Pandemic warrants different approaches to solve them. Although it proved to be the main challenge versus health problems, coming together and acting as one is more significant and stronger compared to isolation and acting alone.

Antimicrobial resistance bears weight to the economic aspect, and to the public aspect of health problems. Practitioners, Drug developers, and Public Health specialists require working together to rule out the challenge of drug resistance whilst treating infectious diseases. Education can be provided to patients and practitioners, careful diagnosis can be assessed, and rational drug use can be promoted but all require a swift and unified action against the serious challenge of drug resistance.

COVID-19 has affected different aspects of millions of human lives across thousands of kilometers. COVID-19 has challenged epidemiologists, virologists, microbiologists, economists, politicians, and many more across different sectors in society. The understanding, the knowledge, the solutions, the technology have all been challenged. Despite the challenges, nearly all of us have found our humane sense of coming together, working aside each other, and reaching the conclusion altogether against the deadly pandemic.

Thus, solving health problems at a world-like scale requires the central idea of humanity acting and deciding as one body for the benefit of one globe and addressing problems via one health approach. One body, one globe, one health phenomenon is essential for the global health agenda.

About the author

Currently, a third-year university student in Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMUCo), Faculty of Medicine located in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. An individual with multiple leadership roles in different fields including environmental field work, graphics and website designing, community health engagement, and undergraduate research. A reliable, trilingual, and competitive personnel who thrives in a team setting. Passionate about medical health, website and graphics, program management, research, and leadership.