Report on Pandemic Threat

• 19 Sep 2019

According to a report released by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), the chances of a global pandemic are growing and the world is not prepared for the same.

• The report titled ‘A World At Risk’ has been authored by 15 global scientists and public health leaders, including India’s principal scientific advisor, Dr K Vijay Raghavan.
• It is co-convened by the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO).
• WHO tracked 1,483 epidemics in 172 countries between 2011 and 2018.

Key Findings

• Epidemic-prone diseases, such as influenza, Ebola, Zika, plague, yellow fever and others, are harbingers of a new era of high-impact, potentially fast-spreading outbreaks that are more frequently detected and increasingly difficult to manage.
• Reasons Behind frequency: Population growth, urbanisation, globally integrated economy, widespread and faster travel, conflict, migration and climate change.
• Possible Impact: A pandemic equivalent to the 1918 Spanish Flu could kill 80 million and wipe out nearly 5% of the global economy, devastating health systems and hitting low-resourced communities the hardest.
• Indian Context: India has handled the threats of Nipah and zoonotic influenza viruses quite well. However, the threat of a devastating pandemic looms large on the world and India remains highly vulnerable.
• Suggestions:
  
  • Intergovernmental organisations, donors and multilateral institutions need to come together to strengthen funding mechanisms, information sharing and continuous monitoring.
  • Multilateral financing organisations like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank need to integrate preparedness into replenishments, national and international financial risk assessments, incentive systems and funding mechanisms.
  • Increasing country preparedness by
    
    • raising funding,
    • doing more research into new technologies, vaccines and medicines,
    • establishing rapid communication systems,
    • launching a coordinated government, industry and community response;
    • and following through on international commitments.
  • Investing in building a competent health system:
    
    • Building high health system capability for prevention, effective surveillance, early detection and containment and appropriate management of any cases.
    • This requires a sufficiently large and well-skilled health workforce with public health expertise and well-resourced health care infrastructure apart from robust health information systems that can provide early alerts.

Global Preparedness Monitoring Board

• Created in response to recommendations by the UN Secretary General’s Global Health Crises Task Force in 2017, the GPMB was co-convened by the World Health Organization and the World Bank Group and formally launched in May 2018.
• It is an independent monitoring and accountability body to ensure preparedness for global health crises.
• Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.

Source: HT