United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Open Pedagogy Fellowship
Combating Pandemics through “One Health” approach:
Exploring Community Engagements.
Dr. Demelash Areda, Maricopa Community Colleges (Arizona);
Professor Rebecca M. Portis, Montgomery College (Maryland)
2020-2021
Introduction:
You are a part of a collegewide effort to increase access to education and empower students
through "open pedagogy." Open pedagogy is a "free access" educational practice that places you
- the student - at the center of your own learning process in a more engaging, collaborative
learning environment. The ultimate purpose of this effort is to achieve greater social justice in
our community in which the work can be freely shared with the broader community. This is a
renewable assignment that is designed to enable you to become an agent of change in your
community through the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). For this work, you will integrate the disciplines of Biology and Public Health to achieve
SDG #3: Good Health and Well-Being. With a focus on Target 3.3: By 2030, end the epidemics
of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne
diseases and other communicable diseases.

Learning Objectives:
Learning Objectives:
− Students will learn history and impacts of pandemic diseases on public health and social and
economic circumstances and how to mitigate them using One Health approach.

Purpose/Rationale:
Background on One Health Concept

The past decades have seen unprecedented looming of complex and challenging issues to human
and animal healthcare service delivery that supplant the basic and primary health care systems
(Zinsstag et al, 2011). One major global issue is the continues emergence pandemic zoonotic
diseases. Pandemics are highly communicable diseases that spread across wider regions of the
globe affecting wider population and consequently causing significant public health and
socioeconomic disruption. In numerous occasions throughout human history, pandemics have
wiped out human populations, devastated economic development, shaped outcomes of wars
(Scheidel et a, 2017). For example, the plague, as a metaphor for any sudden outbreak of a
disastrous evil or affliction (Merriam-Webster, 2018) was reported to be responsible for
decimation of over one-third of the population and demise of the Roman empire and its emperor,
Marcus Aurelius (Sabbatani et al, 2009). The Spanish Flu of 1918–1920, caused by the H1N1
strain of the influenza virus (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, 2018) devastated
societies across the globe despite the then advancement in public health epidemiology
(Antonovics et al, 2006).
The most noticeable pandemics that have recently impacted global health and socio economics
include Ebola, HIV, SARS, H1N1, ZIKA. As we speak right now, the world is being rattled by
another devastating pandemic COVID19, caused by a virus called SARS-COV2. According to
CDC (2021), in US alone, 30,492,334 have been infected and 553,681 died since the first case
reported in January 21, 2020. Globally, 130, 422, 190 confirmed cases and 2,842,135 death cases
have been reported in 223 countries and territories across the world (world Health Organization,
WHO, 2021).
Purpose/Rationale of the Assignment:
The continued evolution of causal agent (SARS-COV2) and subsequent emergence of highly
transmissible new variants remind us that we have entered into new era of pandemic world that
necessitates innovative and interdisciplinary collaboration. Furthermore, it reminds us of the need
for rekindling our healthcare delivery system and specifically pandemic disease control programs.
A sole discipline (medical field) approach and conventional healthcare service doesn’t seem to be
effectively working in preventing pandemics. Therefore, interdisciplinary and innovative
approaches are needed to address this crisis. One Health is a new and emerging concept that
defines an integrative and multidisciplinary approach aimed at combating public health and
animal health and environmental crisis. It fosters a collaboration between various disciplines
including physicians, veterinarians, ecologist, agriculturalists, environmental experts, wildlife
experts, sociologist, and policy makers. Recognizing its tremendous potential benefits, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recently established One Health office to promote the
concept in the United States and around the world.
Despite some encouraging progresses in creating awareness of One Health concept in some
government institutions such as CDC, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food

and Drug Administration (FDA), few works have been done to institutionalize and promote the
concept particular at college and community levels. This project is aimed at creating open
pedagogical resources (renewable assignments) and help integrate One Health concept in
curriculum of Maricopa Community Colleges and more broadly to promote awareness about the
concept among the Arizona residents at various levels.

Instructions:
This project entails the following 4 components. Depending on their choice students will select
and work on one of the three components:
1.
“One Health” Infographics. Infographics are useful tools to explain difficult concepts or
break down complex information to make it easier to understand (Easy WebContent, Inc. (DBA
Visme). 2021). You can find various infographic templates via google search. In this “One Health
Infographic” assignment, students will skillfully develop self-explanatory and educative
infographics. The following information needs to be included in the infographic design (source:
Bhulle, G. 2014):
a. Story about “One health” showing multidisciplinary (Environmental health, Human health and
Veterinary Medical health) and multisectoral (Local state, national and international agencies)
collaboration. Knowing that this infographic is for the general public, it would be important to
make it simple and self-explanatory. While preparing the assignment, you need to keep in mind
the followings:
− Why and What story about “One health” you want to tell
− Who are your audience
− Short and descriptive headlines/notes for each illustration/sub illustration needed to better
engage the audiences.
− Use different colors to represent real illustrations in infographic
b. Data: include some data (from published articles) about One Health. Example: List of some
major recent pandemic (COVID19, Ebola, SARS, H1N1, ZIKA etc..), Percent of world
population exposed to zoonotic disease, # of people infected with COVI19 globally; Over 30 new
human pathogens have been detected in the last three decades, 75% of which have originated in
animals (World Health Organization, 2021).
c. Design: appropriate design is needed to connect information together to make it a better history
teller.
See below a sample of CDC’s infographic about one health.

2.
Art and Pandemic: Poem or drawing about pandemic in particular about COVID19’s
disruption of society’s day to day life (human connection), unprecedented impacts on economy
and public health. The Poem will be presented in written form as well as short podcast/video
presentation. Alternatively, students can choose to do a one page illustrative and informative
drawing depicting message of hope and courage during difficult time of pandemic COVID19.
The purpose of this art assignment is to serve as an outlet for emotional, psychological, and
mental anguish and grieves related to COVID19 pandemic impacts.
3.
Video presentation. This is a short (3 to 5 minutes) video presentation about history of
pandemic and the evolution of “One Health”. The video needs to include a brief narrative about
the following entities:
− What are pandemic diseases?
− History of pandemic disease including the worst pandemic and epidemic in history. Refer to
the article written by “Owen Jarus, 2020 (20 of the worst epidemics and pandemics in history.
− What is one health
− History and evolution of one health
− Benefits of One Health in combating global pandemic
4.
Research (preliminary) on Community Awareness about Pandemics and One Health.
Students will design and conduct a preliminary research survey (using questionnaire format) to
determine the level of awareness of zoonotic diseases and One Health among community
members. Students will have the opportunity to do extensive literature research to have advanced
information about one health. This helps generate some information about this topic.

Format Requirements:
Inforgraphics, Poem, Documentary

Combating Pandemics through “One Health” approach: Exploring Community
Engagements is licensed by Dr. Demelash Areda, Maricopa Community Colleges (Arizona) and
Professor Rebecca M. Portis, Montgomery College (Maryland) under the Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY)