Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
How can interdisciplinary research strengthen One Health approaches and improve preparedness for future health threats? This World Health Summit 2025 workshop examined how integrating human, animal, environmental, and social sciences can generate deeper insights into disease risks and more effective prevention strategies.
The session highlighted examples from ongoing research projects in Nigeria, The Gambia, and Thailand. Speakers discussed how combining microbiology, genomics, anthropology, behavioral science, ecology, and health systems research enables a more precise understanding of spillover dynamics, climate-related risks, and the social and environmental factors that shape health.
The discussion also addressed critiques of the One Health concept, including its frequent overemphasis on zoonoses and insufficient attention to environmental drivers. Participants reflected on how context-specific strategies at community level can strengthen prevention, readiness, and response, and how One Health approaches can advance health equity locally and globally.
This workshop was part of the World Health Summit 2025 in Berlin and was co-hosted by the German Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Moderator and speakers included Johanna Hanefeld (RKI), Hanan Balkhy (World Health Organization), Anise Happi (Institute of Genomics and Global Health, Nigeria), Joacim Rocklöv (Heidelberg Planetary Health Hub, Germany), Almudena Marí Sáez (Institute de Recherche pour le Développement, France), and Kris Murray (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine).
The World Health Summit 2025 was a global platform that brought together leaders from science, politics, the private sector, and civil society to advance health and well-being worldwide. Learn more: worldhealthsummit.org
How can interdisciplinary research strengthen One Health approaches and improve preparedness for future health threats? This World Health Summit 2025 workshop examined how integrating human, animal, environmental, and social sciences can generate deeper insights into disease risks and more effective prevention strategies.
The session highlighted examples from ongoing research projects in Nigeria, The Gambia, and Thailand. Speakers discussed how combining microbiology, genomics, anthropology, behavioral science, ecology, and health systems research enables a more precise understanding of spillover dynamics, climate-related risks, and the social and environmental factors that shape health.
The discussion also addressed critiques of the One Health concept, including its frequent overemphasis on zoonoses and insufficient attention to environmental drivers. Participants reflected on how context-specific strategies at community level can strengthen prevention, readiness, and response, and how One Health approaches can advance health equity locally and globally.
This workshop was part of the World Health Summit 2025 in Berlin and was co-hosted by the German Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Moderator and speakers included Johanna Hanefeld (RKI), Hanan Balkhy (World Health Organization), Anise Happi (Institute of Genomics and Global Health, Nigeria), Joacim Rocklöv (Heidelberg Planetary Health Hub, Germany), Almudena Marí Sáez (Institute de Recherche pour le Développement, France), and Kris Murray (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine).
The World Health Summit 2025 was a global platform that brought together leaders from science, politics, the private sector, and civil society to advance health and well-being worldwide. Learn more: worldhealthsummit.org
