World health, international security and bird flu

April 7 is marked as WORLD HEALTH DAY and this year’s focus is all about “international health security“.

Globalization has brought with it increasing health and security threats, and yet also more opportunities to disseminate information, and rapidly respond to outbreaks that most certainly will affect more than one nation. To quote the issues paper -

(There is a) need to reduce the vulnerability of people around the world to new, acute or rapidly spreading risks to health, particularly those that threaten to cross international borders…

The danger that new diseases to which there is universal vulnerability will cause international harm means that countries can no longer manage certain types of outbreaks as though they were strictly domestic affairs.

Issue #1 on the debate was emerging and re-emerging diseases. Mapped from 1996-2004, Ebola and CCHF were identified as spreading the most in several continents. If data from 2005 were to be included, I suspect influenza H5N1 would compete for that dreaded number 1 spot.

… since then the world has been on constant alert for an influenza epidemic.

Tags: world health, influenza, H5N1, globalization, emerging diseases, international, security