New global health security system seeks to improve on past failed efforts

The U.S. has joined 26 other countries in a collaborative effort to improve the detection, prevention and response to infectious disease outbreaks around the world. But as nations begin to pledge resources toward protecting as many as 4 billion people from infectious diseases over the next five years, questions remain about how the initiative will differ from past efforts that have fallen short.

The U.S. commitment will involve a joint effort between HHS and other federal departments, including Agriculture, Defense and State that will work with partner countries to build their global health-security capabilities. Work will include improving disease surveillance; accelerating detection and response to slow the spread of antimicrobial resistance; establishing national biosecurity systems; reducing zoonotic disease transmission; increasing routine immunizations; and developing public health electronic-reporting systems and emergency operation centers. These efforts aim to enable countries to detect at least five of the most deadly organisms throughout at least 80% of their country.

Participating countries have committed to creating emergency disease centers capable of responding within two hours to an outbreak or other crisis. They further pledge to link data from this global biosurveillance network through the World Health Organization.

But a framework to accomplish similar goals has been in place since the 1990s. In 2007, 194 member countries of the World Health Assembly committed to improving their capabilities to prevent and contain health hazards that had the potential of reaching other nations by July 2012. By the deadline, however, only 20% of those countries had succeeded in making the preparations necessary to address infectious disease threats.

Asked how the new initiative would differ from past efforts, Andy Weber, U.S. assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, said it is intended to energize international efforts by applying resources from outside the public health field.

For years, international health agencies such as the WHO have called on governments to pay more attention to global health threats that have surfaced from the emergence of new microbes, increased international travel, as well as a rise in the number of drug-resistant infections, and the release of biological pathogens either accidentally or through terrorist attacks.

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