• Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation
• Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions

You might wonder why DTB is publishing an article this month about toxocarosis, a disease that can develop in humans as a result of transmission of infective Toxocara worm eggs from the faeces of cats, dogs or foxes. Symptomatic disease is rare in the UK, so its possibility is unlikely to be uppermost in the minds of most healthcare professionals. In contrast, protecting humans from toxocarosis is a prominent concern in veterinary practice and pet owners are recommended to worm their cats and dogs regularly.1 As the health of adult cats and dogs is not usually affected by Toxocara, apart from kittens and puppies, worming cats and dogs to treat Toxocara infection is done in the name of protecting human health.

Recently, there has been a trend towards more frequent and widespread use of parasiticides in cats and dogs to treat Toxacara infection and also to treat and prevent other common parasite diseases (so-called blanket protection). British veterinary organisations are concerned about this because of the potential harm that might be caused to invertebrates when parasiticides end up in the environment. In a joint statement, the veterinary professional organisations have recommended that vets adopt a risk-based approach to prescribing the drugs.2 Decisions about the optimal use of parasiticides against Toxocara must necessarily include an up-to-date evaluation of the evidence on the risk of toxocarosis in humans. To help with this, DTB together with Veterinary Prescriber commissioned an evidence review on toxocarosis that is published in this issue.

Veterinary Prescriber (www.veterinaryprescriber.org) is a logical partner to DTB on this topic. It is an independent medicines information resource for vets founded by the author, a pharmacist who worked on DTB as an associate editor for over 20 years. Vets face similar challenges to doctors—the need to interpret an ever-growing body of published evidence and to evaluate and decide whether to prescribe new medicines, as well as the influences of pharmaceutical marketing—and so they have a similar need for access to objective and practical advice on medicines. Like DTB, Veterinary Prescriber accepts no sponsorship or advertising and is free to discuss all medicines and to be critical of evidence and promotion of pharmaceutical products.

Toxocara is an example of a problem that stands at the intersection between the health of people, animals and the environment—a One Health issue.3 4 Use of a drug intervention to protect the health of humans that involves the treatment of a population of cats and dogs numbering more than 20 million (most of which will not benefit from the treatment) is an example of where joined-up thinking between the human and veterinary medicine professions is needed.5 6 The biodiversity crisis demands that we make the best decisions about how we use parasiticides in the interest of the health of people, animals and the planet.