6 April 2007
On April 7 the World
Health Organization (WHO) celebrates its founding with the annual World Health
Day. This year the theme focuses on international health security. To initiate the events the new WHO
Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, spoke at a high-level international
meeting in Singapore on April 2nd. At the same time a multinational conference
was held in Washington, DC at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) April
2-3.
Dr. Chan emphasized
several key points:
1. One of the greatest threats to international health security
is “emerging and epidemic-prone
diseases”.
2. Modern activities that can contribute to such disease
outbreaks include: the way we use and misuse antibiotics, how we produce and
trade food, the high volume of air travel, and how we manage our environment.
3. Outbreaks are a bigger threat today than 30 years ago in two
ways. First, emerging infectious diseases are more numerous now. For example 39
human pathogens have been identified between 1973 and 2003. Approximately 75% of emerging human
infectious diseases began as animal diseases. Second, the highly mobile and
interconnectedness of the 21st century can amplify the damage caused
by outbreaks. Examples include: the almost 2 billion airline passengers each
year, interrelated financial markets, just-in-time production and global
business sourcing, and electronic multimodality information exchange.
4. In two months (June
2007), the new International Health Regulations (IHR), will allow WHO for the
first time “to act on media reports to request verification and offer
collaboration to an affected country. If this offer is refused, WHO can alert
the world to an emergency of international concern using information other than
official government notifications.” These new regulations should increase the
ability of the WHO to act in a proactive manner to pre-empt “an outbreak early
and stop it at its source---before it has a chance to become an international
threat.”
5. Misuse of antimicrobial drugs may result in a world “where
mainstay antibiotics are no longer effective” and multidrug resistant viruses
and bacteria can travel readily across international borders.
The
complete transcript of Dr. Chan’s speech can be found on the WHO website under
the section on World Health Day 2007 at:
www.who.int/world-health-day/2007/toolkit/dg_message/en/index.html
Daniel R. Lucey, MD,
MPH
Director, Center for
Biologic Counterterrorism and Emerging Infectious Diseases, EROne Institutes,
Washington Hospital Center
Co-Director, M.S.
Graduate Program in Biohazardous Threat Agents and Emerging Infectious Diseases
Washington, DC
Website: www.BePast.org e-mail: Daniel.R. Lucey@Medstar.net