Health :: International health security issues – World Health Day 2007

A WHO background document will be used to help guide discussions and stir debate. The paper profiles eight issues linked to international health security, together with key points to focus the debate:

Emerging diseases: new, highly contagious diseases, such as SARS and avian influenza, know no borders. Their potential to cause international harm means that outbreaks cannot be treated as purely national issues. In the last few decades, new diseases began emerging at an unprecedented rate of one or more per year.

Economic stability: public heath dangers have economic as well as health consequences. Containing international threats is good for economic well-being. With fewer than 10,000 cases, SARS cost Asian countries US $ 60 billion of gross expenditure and business losses in the second quarter of 2003 alone.

International crises and humanitarian emergencies: these events kill and maim individuals and severely stress the health systems that people rely on for personal health security. In 2006, 134.6 million people were affected and 21 342 were killed by natural disasters.

Chemical, radioactive and biological terror threats: whether deliberate or accidental, WHO’s global networks are well placed to respond to the health effects of these threats using the same techniques employed in other disasters – rapid assessment and response, triage and treatment, securing water, food and sanitation systems. Anthrax-tainted letters sent through the U.S. postal system in 2001 and the release of sarin on the Tokyo subway in 1995 remind us that although chemical and biological attacks are rare, there are people ready to use this brand of terrorism.

Environmental change: environmental and climate changes have a growing impact on health, but health policies alone cannot prevent their effects. People are dying- upwards of 60 000 in recent years in climate-related natural disasters, mainly in developing countries.

HIV/AIDS – a key health and security issue: the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS, demonstrated to international security specialists the potential impact of a public health issue on security. In 2006, an estimated 39.5 million people were living with HIV/AIDS.

Building health security: national compliance with the revised IHR 2005 will underpin international health security.

Strengthening health systems: functioning health systems are the bedrock of health security, but the current state of systems worldwide is inadequate. As an example, the world is currently short of more than four million health workers, with the impact most felt in developing countries.


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