Context
- The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is strengthening surveillance under the National One Health Mission (NOHM) through syndromic, wastewater, genomic and metagenomic surveillance.
- Wastewater surveillance covers 13 priority pathogens across 47 cities and is planned to expand to 75 cities by 2027. Five genomic and metagenomic hubs have also been established.
- The broader shift is from detecting disease after large-scale spread to building an early-warning and prevention system across human, animal and environmental health.
What Is the One Health Approach?
One Health recognises that human, animal and environmental health are interconnected.
A pathogen may circulate in animals or the environment, cross species barriers and later cause disease in humans. Therefore, surveillance limited only to hospitals may detect the threat too late.
Human Health ↔ Animal Health ↔ Environmental Health
Thus, One Health represents a shift from sector-specific disease control to integrated health security.
Why Has One Health Become More Important?
- Zoonotic spillover: greater interaction among humans, livestock and wildlife increases opportunities for pathogens to cross species barriers.
- Antimicrobial resistance: Antibiotic use across humans, livestock and poultry can promote resistant microbes that circulate between sectors.
- Climate change: Changing temperature and rainfall patterns can expand the geographical range of disease vectors.
- Habitat disruption: Deforestation and fragmentation increase human-wildlife contact and the risk of pathogen transmission.
- Food-system risks: Pathogens and antimicrobial residues can move through livestock and food chains into human populations.
These drivers show why disease prevention increasingly requires coordination across public health, veterinary science, agriculture and ecology.
National One Health Mission
The National One Health Mission is a cross-sectoral initiative aimed at improving integrated disease surveillance, outbreak response and pandemic preparedness.
- ICMR is the implementing agency.
- Multiple ministries and departments participate in the framework.
- The National Institute of One Health, Nagpur is envisaged as an important institutional anchor.
Its broad approach is:
Integrated surveillance → Early warning → Joint investigation → Rapid response
How Is ICMR Strengthening Surveillance?
- Syndromic Surveillance
It tracks unusual clusters of symptoms or disease syndromes before laboratory confirmation.
For example, a sudden rise in severe respiratory illness can generate an alert before the exact pathogen is identified.
Value: Gives an early signal of an emerging outbreak.
- Wastewater Surveillance
Sewage is tested for pathogens or their genetic material released by infected populations.
Because infected persons may remain undiagnosed, wastewater can reveal community-level disease circulation earlier than hospital data alone.
Value: Enables population-level early warning.
- Genomic Surveillance
It studies the genetic sequence of known pathogens to identify mutations, variants and transmission patterns.
Value: Helps track how a pathogen is evolving and spreading.
- Metagenomic Surveillance
It analyses all genetic material present in a sample rather than searching only for a known organism.
Value: Can identify unexpected or previously unknown pathogens, improving preparedness for novel outbreaks.
- Integrated Human-Animal-Wildlife Surveillance
Data from health workers, veterinarians, laboratories and wildlife authorities are brought together to detect unusual disease events across species.
Value: Helps identify zoonotic threats before widespread human transmission occurs.
Why Does the New Surveillance Architecture Matter for India?
- Earlier detection: Syndromic and wastewater surveillance can identify abnormal trends before severe cases overwhelm hospitals.
- Novel-pathogen preparedness: Metagenomics improves the ability to detect threats for which no specific diagnostic test may yet exist.
- Faster zoonotic warning: Animal and wildlife surveillance can alert authorities before large-scale spillover into humans.
- Targeted response: Integrated datasets help authorities identify where a pathogen is circulating and how it may be spreading.
- Biosecurity: Stronger detection networks improve preparedness against natural outbreaks, laboratory accidents and deliberate biological threats.
India’s One Health Institutional Architecture
The National One Health Mission should be distinguished from the National One Health Programme for Prevention and Control of Zoonoses (NOHP-PCZ).
- NOHM: Broader cross-sectoral framework for integrated surveillance and pandemic preparedness.
- NOHP-PCZ: NCDC-led programme focused specifically on prevention and control of zoonotic diseases.
The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) also supports zoonotic surveillance, outbreak investigation and One Health coordination.
Global Dimension
The global One Health Quadripartite consists of:
WHO + FAO + UNEP + World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)
It promotes coordinated action on:
- zoonotic diseases;
- antimicrobial resistance;
- food safety;
- ecosystem health;
- pandemic preparedness.
This reflects the fact that infectious diseases increasingly cross both species and national boundaries.
Key Challenges
- Institutional silos: Human health, veterinary, wildlife and environmental agencies often function separately.
- Data fragmentation: Surveillance systems may not share information in real time or use interoperable formats.
- Last-mile weakness: Frontline health, veterinary and wildlife personnel may lack adequate diagnostic and reporting capacity.
- Workforce gaps: Effective One Health requires more epidemiologists, veterinarians, microbiologists, ecologists and genomic specialists.
Way Forward
- Integrate surveillance platforms: Enable real-time sharing of human, animal and environmental health data.
- Strengthen district-level capacity: Link health workers, veterinary officers and wildlife officials through functional One Health networks.
- Expand genomic capability: Scale sequencing, metagenomics and bioinformatics for rapid pathogen identification.
- Improve AMR stewardship: Coordinate antibiotic surveillance and regulation across healthcare, livestock and poultry.
FAQs
Q1. How is One Health different from conventional public health?
One Health jointly considers human, animal and environmental determinants of disease, rather than focusing mainly on human cases.
Q2. What is syndromic surveillance?
It tracks symptom patterns before laboratory confirmation, helping detect outbreaks earlier.
Q3. Why is wastewater surveillance useful?
It provides a community-level signal of disease circulation, including infections that may never reach clinical testing.
Q4. How is metagenomic surveillance different from genomic surveillance?
Genomic surveillance usually tracks known pathogens, while metagenomics can detect multiple or previously unknown organisms in the same sample.
Q5. Why is One Health important for pandemic preparedness?
Because many emerging infections arise at the human-animal-environment interface, integrated surveillance can detect threats before widespread transmission.
