BMJ 2014;348:g1589 doi: 10.1136/bmj.g1589 (Published 18 February 2014)

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NEWS 26 nations join US Global Health Security Agenda Michael McCarthy Seattle

Representatives of 26 nations met in Washington, DC, on 13 February to join a new US initiative on the threat of infectious diseases.

The Global Health Security Agenda will include programs to help countries develop national infectious disease laboratories, public health electronic reporting systems, and emergency operations centers.

Kathleen Sebelius, US Secretary of Health and Human Services, said that the initiative was necessary because the world’s growing interconnectedness allowed dangerous pathogens to spread “faster and farther than ever . . . A threat anywhere is indeed a threat everywhere.”

Although all 194 World Health Organization member states have adopted in principle the infectious disease measures outlined in WHO’s International Health Regulations, 80% have not been able to meet the regulations’ capacity requirements for the prevention of, detection of, and response to infectious diseases. Sebelius said that the goal of the new initiative over the next five years was to help 30 nations move toward meeting those requirements and to provide coverage for at least 4 billion people.

As part of the initiative the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency have allocated $40m (£24m; €29m) in the current fiscal year to projects in 10 countries, to advance the programs’ objectives. President Barack Obama’s budget for the 2015 fiscal year—beginning 1 October 2014—will include an additional $45m in the CDC’s budget for the programs.

In a teleconference Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, said that the initiative’s goals included participating countries having the capacity to detect at least five of their most deadly organisms in at least 80% of their territory and to have emergency operation systems that can marshal rapid response teams within 120 minutes to control an outbreak and halt its spread. The countries joining the US initiative were Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam. WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Organization for Animal Health have also participated. Cite this as: BMJ 2014;348:g1589 © BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2014

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26 nations join US Global Health Security Agenda.

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