PHA-Exchange> The world health report 2007 - A safer future: global public health security in the 21st century

Tue Aug 28 05:30:53 PDT 2007

From: Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC) ruglucia at paho.org
 EQUIDAD at listserv.paho.org

 *The world health report 2007 - A safer future: global public health
security in the 21st century* *World health Organization August 2007*

*The World Health Report 2007 - A safer future: global public health
security in the 21st century* marks a turning point in the history of public
health, and signals what could be one of the biggest advances in health
security in half a century.

Full report available online PDF [96p] at:
http://www.who.int/whr/2007/whr07_en.pdf

It shows how the world is at increasing risk of disease outbreaks,
epidemics, industrial accidents, natural disasters and other health
emergencies which can rapidly become threats to global public health
security.

The report explains how the revised International Health Regulations (2005),
which came into force this year, helps countries to work together to
identify risks and act to contain and control them. The regulations are
needed because no single country, regardless of capability or wealth, can
protect itself from outbreaks and other hazards without the cooperation of
others. The report says the prospect of a safer future is within reach - and
that this is both a collective aspiration and a mutual responsibility.
*Report by chapter*

-         Overview<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/overview/en/index.html>
- Chapter 1: Evolution of public health
security<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/chapter1/en/index.html>
- Chapter 2: Threats to public health
security<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/chapter2/en/index.html>
- Chapter 3: New health threats in the 21st
century<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/chapter3/en/index.html>
- Chapter 4: Learning lessons, thinking
ahead<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/chapter4/en/index.html>
- Chapter 5: Towards a safer
future<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/chapter5/en/index.html>
- Conclusions &
recommendations<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/conclusion/en/index.html>

UN Press Release:

"….."International public health security is both a collective aspiration
and a mutual responsibility. The new watchwords are diplomacy, cooperation,
transparency and preparedness," she added of the report, which calls
pandemic influenza the most feared threat to health security in our times.

Experts fear that the current bird flu virus, which has so far infected 321
people, killing 194 of them, could mutate to easy human-to-human
transmission. The so-called Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920, which spread
easily between humans, is estimated to have killed from 20 million to 40
million people. The experts say a new flu pandemic is not a question of if
but of when.

The report sets out the WHO strategic action plan to respond to a pandemic.
It also draws attention to the need for stronger health systems and for
continued vigilance in managing the risks and consequences of the
international spread of polio and the newly emerging strain of extensively
drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB).

It notes that since 1967, at least 39 new pathogens have been identified,
including HIV, the deadly haemorrhagic Ebola and Marburg fevers, and Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in China in 2003 and spread
rapidly as far as Canada, infecting more than 8,000 people, over 800 of them
fatally, before it was brought under control.

Other centuries-old threats, such as pandemic influenza, malaria and
tuberculosis, continue to pose a threat to health through a combination of
mutation, rising resistance to antimicrobial medicines and weak health
systems. New threats have also emerged, linked to potential terrorist
attacks, chemical incidents and radio-nuclear accidents, it adds.

Its recommendations include global cooperation in surveillance and outbreak
alert and response; open sharing of knowledge, technologies and materials,
including viruses and other laboratory samples, necessary to optimize secure
global public health; and global responsibility for capacity building within
the public health infrastructure of all countries.

The report also calls for cross-sector collaboration within Governments and
increased global and national resources for training, surveillance,
laboratory capacity, response networks, and prevention campaigns.

It shows how and why diseases are increasingly threatening global public
health security, citing the high and rapid mobility of people as one factor.
Airlines now carry more than two billion passengers a year, enabling people
and the diseases that travel with them to pass from one country to another
in a matter of hours.

The potential health and economic impact was seen in 2003 with SARS, which
cost Asian countries an estimated $60 billion of gross expenditure and
business losses.

The report outlines some of the human factors behind public health
insecurity, including inadequate investment in public health resulting from
a false sense of security in the absence of infectious disease outbreaks;
unexpected policy changes such as a decision temporarily to halt
immunization in northern Nigeria in 2003, which led to the re-emergence of
polio cases; and conflicts where forced migration obliges people to live in
overcrowded, unhygienic and impoverished conditions heightening the risk of
epidemics. …."

*Overview*

- Director General's Message & Overview [pdf
1.96Mb]<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/07_overview_en.pdf>
- Overview in Arabic [pdf
1.02Mb]<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/07_overview_ar.pdf>
- Overview Chinese [pdf
1.54Mb]<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/07_overview_ch.pdf>
- Overview in French [pdf
1.94Mb]<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/07_overview_fr.pdf>
- Overview in Russian [pdf
912kb]<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/07_overview_ru.pdf>
- Overview in Spanish [pdf
1.96Mb]<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/07_overview_es.pdf>
*report by chapters*

- Contents [pdf 567kb]<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/07_contents_en.pdf>
- Chapter 1: Evolution of public health security [pdf
735kb]<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/07_chap1_en.pdf>
- Chapter 2: Threats to public health security [pdf
408kb]<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/07_chap2_en.pdf>
- Chapter 3: New health threats in the 21st century [pdf
727kb]<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/07_chap3_en.pdf>
- Chapter 4: Learning lessons, thinking ahead [pdf
583kb]<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/07_chap4_en.pdf>
- Chapter 5: Towards a safer future [pdf
261kb]<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/07_chap5_en.pdf>
- Conclusions & recommendations [pdf
81kb]<http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/07_conclusion_en.pdf>
- Index [pdf 44kb] <http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2007/07_index_en.pdf>
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