The great convergence:
One Health tackles complex health challenges
in the Western Pacific Region

Indonesia | Reducing risks from priority zoonotic disease

As a global hotspot for emerging diseases, Indonesia has felt the direct impact of climate-driven disasters and shifting biodiversity. Recognizing the stakes, the world’s largest archipelago has employed the One Health approach to tackle three priority zoonotic diseases: avian influenza, leptospirosis and rabies.

• Avian influenza: In traditional poultry markets - identified as critical early-warning sites for zoonotic disease spillovers - WHO-supported surveillance teams were piloted across five priority provinces. The pilot generated early insights that sharpened district preparedness, reinforced multisectoral coordination and enabled targeted risk reduction in high‑exposure markets.
• Leptospirosis: When low-lying coastal areas across Indonesia saw a surge in leptospirosis - a climate-sensitive zoonotic disease, WHO supported capacity-building for health-care workers in early detection and prompt treatment, and the establishment of local multisectoral coordination teams to build community awareness. Enhanced community awareness and strengthened health workforce capacities have lowered leptospirosis-related mortality rates across the country.
• Rabies: Endemic in 26 of 38 Indonesian provinces, rabies presents a formidable challenge that has required multisectoral action. WHO advanced crucial response actions, including implementing a joint workplan with multiple partners for rabies prevention and control; amplifying risk communication; accelerating animal vaccination; and advancing surveillance and case management for rabid animals. WHO is now working with the Government of Indonesia to draft a regulation that will accelerate cross-sector collaboration to control rabies.

Malaysia | Partnerships in action to combat AMR

In 2021, bacterial AMR was linked to approximately 17 200 deaths in Malaysia, posing a critical threat to both human and animal health. To address this, WHO and the other One Health Quadripartite members have partnered with Malaysia to implement a multisectoral strategy.

• Strengthening AMR outbreak response in hospitals. Malaysia launched a nationwide, tiered capacity-building initiative to improve AMR outbreak detection and response. WHO leveraged support from the Japan Institute for Health Security - its collaborating centre for AMR surveillance and research - to develop and conduct the outbreak response training, as well as to update national guidelines.
• Advancing integrated One Health AMR surveillance. Under the TRiUMPH initiative - which informs efforts to strengthen integrated AMR surveillance - WHO, along with other Quadripartite members, led a national workshop that enabled multisectoral coordination, standardization and data-sharing.
• Rallying political support for AMR action. Together with the Quadripartite, WHO led multisectoral communication workshops to advocate and garner political support for AMR actions.

Tonga | Addressing the rise of vector-borne diseases

Dengue has increasingly become a serious public health problem across the Pacific, including in Tonga. In 2025, Tonga declared a dengue outbreak that lasted five months, with over 900 reported cases and three deaths.

Tonga launched a response, with support from WHO, that took on a One Health approach, engaging multiple sectors to address dengue and other vector-borne diseases.

Tonga’s Ministry of Health walked the talk in prioritizing stakeholder coordination to first learn about what worked and did not work during previous outbreaks. In addition, the Ministry, with the support of WHO, reviewed its decisions during the response to fine-tune decisions and actions to respond to challenges (also known as an intra-action review).

­More recently, Tonga continued to build on their active approach in including voices from across the community. Multiple government authorities, church networks, media, and civil society organizations put strategy into practice through a hands-on training facilitated by WHO.

This hands-on training enabled participants to be more informed on public health safety measures during emergencies, including on effective communications and engagement, and applied principles from newly launched multi-hazard risk communication and community engagement strategy – putting strategy to practice.

Tonga also set a precedent for the Pacific by hosting the region’s first national bridging workshop – a practical step toward preparedness for future emergencies at the human-animal-environment interface.

Participants representing diverse sectors discussed gaps in Tonga’s preparedness and response systems, built connections across sectors, and developed a coherent, resource-efficient roadmap to strengthen Tonga’s capacity – and by extension, the Pacific’s – to detect, prevent and respond to zoonotic and pandemic threats through shared ownership and coordinated action.

These are just a few examples of how countries across the Western Pacific are modelling multisectoral efforts and implementing the One Health approach to advance health for all. The challenges – climate change, habitat loss and disease spillover – are complex. But the solution is simple: we must act as one.