A Path to Global Health Security

A Path to Global Health Security

October 12, 2016

By: Amy Pope, Heather Higginbottom, Gayle Smith, Dr. Tom Frieden

This week, dozens of senior leaders from around the world – representing government, academia and the private sector – will converge in the Netherlands.  Their charge?  To advance the ambitious Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) and ensure that it is sustained.
The world is more connected than in any time in human history.  Distance no longer affords protection from disease, viruses, even epidemics.  Pick two major cities anywhere in the world and there’s a near certainty there’s at least one commercial flight each day linking them.  Los Angeles to Singapore. New York to Mumbai. Manila to Toronto. Washington, D.C. to Johannesburg.
Disease requires only the smallest opening to take root and spread.  In today’s tightly connected world, disease can be transported from an isolated, rural village to any major city in as little as 36 hours.  In addition, there is also the potential for bad actors to gain access to and disseminate dangerous pathogens.  Our connectedness provides opportunity for people all over the world, but it also poses serious challenges with implications for our health security and for the stability and security of our populations.
That is precisely the world for which the GHSA was created.
READ MORE: A Path to Global Health Security