Why Global Health Security Matters
Disease Threats Can Spread Faster and More Unpredictably Than Ever Before
Emerging global disease threats have created the opportunity to forge new global solutions such as the International Health Regulations (IHR)
, signed by all 194 member states of the World Health Organization
. Substantial investments have been made to combat infectious disease threats. We now have greater global health security capacity than ever before.
We Are Not Yet Safe
There is much more to be done. Although every member state has signed on to the IHR, fewer than 20% of countries reported in 2012 that they have fully achieved compliance with the IHR and are fully prepared to detect and respond to disease threats. The aim of the Global Health Security agenda is to close this gap.
That’s why CDC is committed to global health security as a priority at the highest levels, helping develop health systems that prevent avoidable epidemics, detect threats early, and respond rapidly and effectively.
Global Health Security Provides Protection From Infectious Disease Threats
- the emergence and spread of new microbes;
- globalization of travel and trade;
- rise of drug resistance; and
- potential use of laboratories to make and release—intentionally or not—dangerous microbes.
As dangerous new threats are emerging, familiar microbes (such as tuberculosis) are becoming resistant to drugs that once kept them at bay. We have strains of organisms spreading in this country that are resistant to most available antibiotics. Today, in communities across the U.S., someone in a nursing home or a hospital is fighting an infection that doctors have limited or no tools to treat. The GHS initiative will lead to earlier detection and more effective control of these resistant germs before they spread to the U.S.
Global Health Security Is Economically Smart
Pandemic disease threats and ineffective responses can have devastating impact on public health and the global economy.
- SARS cost $30 billion in only 4 months. GHS means safer nations, more stable economies, and fewer failed states.
- AIDS has imposed an economic burden worldwide and has taken an especially heavy toll in low-income countries. A sizeable portion of that cost is a result of AIDS spreading silently for decades before detection and response.
- Pandemic influenza
can cause rapid and widespread death and disruption, stressing commerce and national economies.
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