**5. Climate Change and The Global Health Approach**

For the past fifty years or so, the world has been confronted with an unbridled population growth, a large part of which is forced to migrate to other shores to

*Vector-Borne Diseases and Climate Change in the Environmental Context in Haiti DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96037*

ensure its survival. At the same time, never before in history have the adverse effects of climate change and the risk of ecological disasters been so evident. These changes are accompanied by other profound alterations to the environment, such as the loss of biodiversity, deforestation, soil erosion, acid rain and ocean acidification. At the same time, the increase in life expectancy of the population and the unbridled process of urbanization have contributed to increased vulnerability to various environmental and health risks, particularly with regard to the occurrence of emerging and re-emerging vector-borne diseases for humans and animals. This has led to a holistic approach to human, animal and environmental health known as "One Health".

#### **5.1 Nature of the "One Health, One Health" concept or approach**

This concept emphasizes that public health problems that generally involve human/animal/environment interaction are so complex that they cannot be solved by a single discipline but by a multiple, transdisciplinary and multisector approach. Indeed, it is generally accepted that the environment in which human and animal populations live together has changed considerably over the years, greatly influencing the occurrence of many infectious and even non-infectious diseases.

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, the "One Health" approach can be defined as "the joint effort of several disciplines working locally, nationally and globally to optimize the health of people, animals and the environment. In other words, it is an integrated approach that recognizes that there is a close interdependence between the well-being of humans, animals and their ecosystem health [40]. Thus, this approach promotes the principles of harmonization of human, animal and ecosystem health to better prevent and/or mitigate emerging diseases while noting that it can be applied to areas other than zoonosis, such as food safety, food security, antimicrobial resistance and response to the consequences of climate change.

Health problems are, in general, strongly linked to global environmental and socio-economic changes and to changes in production systems at the territorial level. This is what makes health management so complex as it mobilizes knowledge from both veterinary public health and agriculture and environment. Because of the emergence of new health uncertainties, unconventional actors are entering alongside the decision-makers traditionally in charge of public health [28]. In the context of climate change and outbreaks of vector-borne diseases throughout the world, including in the Caribbean including Haiti, the public health, animal health and environment sectors have three major challenges to address:


The real innovation of the "One Health" approach is the incorporation of the environmental component in the field of human and animal health. By using such

#### *Environmental Health*

an approach, climate change adaptation methods are more likely to contribute to solving food security problems, particularly in developing countries through the promotion of extensive livestock production systems in areas with large land areas, the increase in animal feeds, environmental sanitation and the establishment of regional integrated surveillance systems for certain vector-borne infectious diseases. It is undeniable that integrated community-based surveillance of zoonosis can be a very promising avenue for reducing the health effects of climate change [41].
