Cabinet formulates 'One Health' plan to tackle global health crises

Taipei, March 6 (CNA) Taiwan's Executive Yuan on Thursday approved an initiative to respond to an increasing variety of modern-day global health threats, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW).

According to a MOHW press release Thursday, the Cabinet approved a plan to devise a national "One Health" initiative akin to the "One Health Joint Plan of Action (2022-2026)" proposed by the U.N. Quadripartite.

One Health was engineered to come up with solutions that can manage rising health threats to humans, animals, plants and the environment, according to the U.N.

The Executive Yuan said Taiwan's initiative will seek to respond to potential health crises that could be brought on by conditions such as climate change, ecosystem disruption, novel infectious diseases, zoonotic diseases and increased antimicrobial resistance.

To commence the initiative, the Cabinet will organize a policy report panel that will be spearheaded by Executive Yuan Minister Without Portfolio Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who was Taiwan's health minister during most of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mirroring the U.N.'s One Health Quadripartite of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N.(FAO), the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP), the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the Taiwan panel will consist of health experts, academics and members of Taiwan's MOHW, Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Ministry of Environment (MOENV) as well as Ministry of the Interior (MOI).

The current schedule will see the panel formed by the end of March, according to the Cabinet, who will conduct meetings and deliver reports regarding Taiwan's future One Health initiative between April and November.

The initiative will tentatively be finalized by December before being launched in 2026, the Executive Yuan indicated.

At a post-meeting press conference on Thursday, Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) also delivered Premier Cho Jung-tai's (卓榮泰) remarks regarding the initiative and panel.

Cho called on the MOHW, MOA, MOENV and the MOI to work together to expedite the formulation of the initiative to bridge Taiwan with the rest of the world and decrease health risks for the sake of the general public, Lee said.