The Need for Strong National Health Systems for Pandemic Preparedness
No Country is Fully Prepared for High-Consequence Infectious Disease Outbreaks. Many countries lack essential public health and health system capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to health emergencies. Health security is both a public health and an international security imperative. Significant outbreaks will likely continue to occur. Increases in international travel, mass displacement, migration͕ climate change, land-use change, and urbanization can enable pathogens to emerge and spread widely, increasing the potential for uncontained outbreaks to become epidemics and pandemics.
How unprepared is the globe as a whole? According to a recent study out of a possible score of 100 points, the average (Global Health Security) GHS Index score across 195 countries and combined categories was 40.2. Even countries with more resources are not ready, as the majority of high- and middle-income countries do not score above 50. What these results tell us is that action is urgently needed to improve countries’ readiness for high-consequence infectious disease outbreaks.
Governments must invest more in understanding the science, in disease prevention, and in emergency preparedness. We must develop functioning surveillance systems and ensure that the people on the frontlines have the resources and capacity they need. Planning and vulnerability assessments must be done, and preparations for the future must be made. Clearly, it is time we invest in research to better understand climate change and infectious diseases and develop responsible policies.
Integrative Journal of Global Health is a peer reviewed journal that focuses on providing insights into various aspects of global health, healthcare, public health, nursing, midwifery and health education research and practice, that is intended towards improvement of health standards of people across the globe.
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