Abstract
Zoonotic diseases have been reported several times in Southeast Asia, especially in the past few decades. For example, during 1998-1999, the first Nipah virus outbreak was reported in Malaysia, and the suspected cases for this virus would be 256. In general, this kind of virus can spread from bats, which are one of the natural reservoirs, to pigs. After that, the virus can be transmitted from pigs to humans. Besides, Nipah virus, COVID-19, one of zoonotic diseases originating in Asia, has caused enormous negative impacts throughout the world. According to World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), most of Emerging Infectious Diseases (EIDs) have an animal origin. As handling emerging and re-emerging diseases effectively needs close and constructive collaboration among all relevant sectors, ranging from human and animal to environmental health, therefore multisectoral collaboration through One Health approach is of prime importance for this public health situation. Regarding the previous action plan (2017–2021), there were many activities implemented among related organizations; however, because of COVID-19, some of them needed to be suspended. In addition, during the difficult situation of COVID-19, the Ministry of Public Health had to take all measures in preventing and controlling this disease, which made an effect on the implementation of some activities. Therefore, the action plan needed to be adjusted according to the situation during that time. Coordinating unit for One Health, the center for One Health collaboration, has its mechanism to work with all related partners (human, animal, and environmental health) both public and private sectors. Most importantly, information sharing, capacity building, National and Provincial One Health assessment, as well as effective preparedness plans have been developed and strengthened for dealing with public health emergency and other unexpected situation at all levels. In addition, the Department of Disease Control has devised the One Health Plan both in national and provincial levels, which are beneficial to allocating resources and building capacity. The objectives of this project are: 1) to develop the national action plan for One Health 2) to develop the network and mechanism for coordination and information sharing between human, animal and environmental health sectors at the national and provincial levels in order to propose them to the policy makers. 3) to develop tools for One Health Assessment at the subnational and provincial level. For the third objective, the tool developed would be analyzed and compared with other tools devised by international organizations, such as State Party Self-Assessment Annual Reporting Tool (SPAR), Joint External Evaluation (JEE) and the Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS). As a result, the One Health Assessment tool can be applied to assess human, animal, and environmental health comprehensively. Moreover, the criteria for this tool would be clear, precise and practical in the real situation. Consequently, with the use of this tool, the local authorities responsible for One Health can know their One Health status, challenging situation, and the way forward as well as how to strengthen the capacity building for One Health in their areas. The results of this project are the Multisectoral Coordination (One Health) Unit and One Health Assessment at the Sub-national and provincial levels, the criteria for One Health Assessment implemented in the pilot province (Chieng-Mai), and the One Health Action Plan
