WHO report highlights public health security
Global co-operation, collaboration and investment are necessary to ensure a safe future, the World Health Organization concludes in this year’s World Health Report “A
safer future: global public health security in the 21st century”.
The WHO report looks at what international activities are required — both
proactive and reactive — to ensure that the impact of infectious
disease epidemics, pandemics and other acute public health events on
the health of populations is minimised.
The report describes the need for international preparedness and co-operation “in
surveillance and outbreak alert and response between governments, United
Nations agencies, private sector industries and organisations, professional
associations, academia, media agencies and civil society”.
The WHO says that revised International Health Regulations (2005), which
came into force in July this year, need to be fully implemented by all
countries. “Meeting the requirements in the revised IHR (2005)
is a challenge that requires time, commitment and the willingness to
change,” the report says.
It also highlights the need for governments
to integrate global public health protection into economic and social
policies with transparency.
The WHO also advocates open sharing of knowledge, technologies and materials,
including laboratory samples. It says: “The struggle for global
public health security will be lost if vaccines, treatment regimens,
and facilities and diagnostics are available only to the wealthy.”
The report also sets out the need for better global and national resourcing
of training of public health personnel, and the continuation and progression
of illness prevention campaigns. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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