26 nations will work together to fight infectious disease threats.
Twenty-six countries, including the United States, have this month formed a global coalition to improve prevention, detection, and response to infectious international health threats. Launched in the U.S., the coalition will be joined by three international organisations, to form the Global Health Security Agenda.
The Agenda was formed to take on outbreaks, whether they are natural, accidental, or intentional, reported Reuters. The countries include those which have been the originating site for several recent fatal infectious outbreaks. H7N9 bird flu, which was first reported in China, and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) which was detected in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
The initiative mirrors efforts by the World Health Organisation which set out guidelines in 2005 for countries to measure their preparedness for emerging disease threats and outbreaks. It is described by Reuters as, a ‘tacit recognition that the vast majority of countries are poorly prepared to detect, let alone contain, disease outbreaks…’
Around $40 million will come out of existing U.S. resources to support the efforts in 2014 of 10 low- and middle-income countries which are working to meet the regulations set out by WHO, according to Tom Frieden, director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Diseases which have never been present in, or were eradicated from, the U.S. are seeing a resurgence. Mosquito-borne West Nile type viruses have appeared for the first time, and drug-resistant tuberculosis is being reported. In areas with high-immigrant populations, and with business people who regularly travel abroad for work, there have been growing reports of TB.
International health regulations require countries to report outbreak to WHO, but many haven’t complied. One of the Global Health Security Agenda’s aims is to better link countries’ disease monitoring systems, and enable biological samples to be shared more rapidly.
“We have the ability to make both the United States and the world substantially safer from infectious threats,” said Frieden.