What are NOAA's One Health Focus Areas?

The seven thematic areas include:

• Extreme conditions (heat, drought, severe weather)
• Benefits from the sea (Marine products, nutrition, and human well-being, New Blue Economy)
• Aquaculture (Environmental assessment - spatial analysis, disease modeling and prevention, seafood safety, Climate change impacts and resiliency)
• Air quality (Aero-allergens, pollution, weather patterns and atmospheric drivers)
• Water-Borne Diseases (Harmful algal bloom and Vibrio forecasts; water quality)
• Vector-Borne Diseases (Climate impacts on vector ranges, transmission, and prediction);
• Aquatic Organism Health (e.g., fish, invertebrates, marine mammals, sea turtles, seaweed), zoonotic risks, Unusual Mortality Events

Why is NOAA Focusing on One Health?

In 2010, the NOAA Science Advisory Board’s Oceans and Health Working Group (OHWG) produced a report emphasizing the Agency’s contributions to the health community and charged the agency to establish a more coordinated approach across the line offices. The One Health Strategy was launched to address this gap.

Recommendations from this report included:

• NOAA should establish health protection, preservation, and enhancement as an agency-wide goal
• NOAA should develop a comprehensive plan for its health focused programs
• NOAA should focus initially on several priority projects including: Forecasts of impending threats, Surveillance systems for emerging pathogens contaminants, and toxins that affect health, Climate change effects on ocean-related health, and Health benefits from the sea