The initiative will bring together professionals from institutions such as AIIMS – New Delhi, Lady Harding Medical College, and Maulana Azad College, among others.
To address the rapidly growing challenges due to Covid-19, healthcare professionals have joined hands with the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisation (FIAPO) under the Doctors for One Health initiative.
The initiative will act as a network for these professionals to endorse integrated healthcare – termed One Health by the World Health Organisation – to highlight the connect between the environment and human and animal health. For its first undertaking, the collective has submitted a petition to Dr Harsh Vardhan Goel, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, urging him to enact and enforce rules to prevent future recurrences of a global pandemic like Covid-19.
The initiative will bring together professionals from institutions such as AIIMS – New Delhi, Lady Harding Medical College, and Maulana Azad College, among others. The aim is to also urge the government to immediately ban wet markets, and enforce harsher rules and closures of slaughterhouses that don’t follow FSSAI guidelines, as well as rules under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughter House) Rules, 2001.
In a statement, Varda Mehrotra, executive director, FIAPO, said, “The One Health approach is not only a smarter and more holistic approach to adopt, but – with the unified voice of Indian healthcare professionals – is also one that presents a compelling and powerful catalyst for change.”