Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
health. nothing less than an integrated international health network, comprising the
wHo, the world Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization
(Fao), the United nations environment Programme (UneP), the United nations
Development Programme (UnDP), national health institutions, and civil society
representatives is needed.
Since the control of emerging infectious diseases lies 'beyond the responsibilities
of any one organization' (Bradford and Linn 2004, 4), defeating HPAI calls for an
inter-sectoral, inter-institutional approach. the wHo has already been working
alongside the Fao and the world organisation for animal Health (oIe) to create a
'master coordination plan [that would] be prepared with a global vision defining the
road map and time frames for the short-, medium- and long-term priority activities,
to be endorsed and supported by individual countries and regional organisations'
and regional organisations'
(FAO and OIE 2005b). That was the first step toward elaborating a global strategy
for the control of HPaI. However, the oIe—like all other agencies—is weakened
by its exclusive reliance on the information supplied by its member states and their
voluntary (and often problematic) compliance (otte
et al. 2004, 43).
Global economic institutions also cannot remain on the sidelines. In cooperation
with the wHo, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the world
bank should
relax the strictures that have a negative impact on the health sector (carin 2005).
The World Trade Organization (wto) should develop pro-health trade incentives
and revise its agreement on the application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
(SPS agreement), which provides a framework for the protection of human, animal,
and plant health and life; at the same time, it should prevent unjustified trade barriers
from being erected (otte
et al. 2004, 44). the International Labour Organization
(Ilo), for its part, could sponsor a global health workforce summit to address the
troubling migration of health practitioners from developing countries (carin 2005).
National Preparedness Plans: State Responsibilities in the Borderless World
of Microbes
However, for all their expertise, international agencies lack public accountability,
and hence authority, to impose and enforce the far-reaching measures required in a
pandemic. For better or worse, this responsibility rests with national governments
(bradford and linn 2004). It is encouraging that most governments have taken
steps, to varying degrees, to deal with avian influenza. Yet there is far more to be
done, beginning with a detailed blueprint of how to get their citizens through one
to three years of a pandemic (osterholm 2005). every country's policy makers
must develop a contingency plan at the domestic level for the worst-case scenario
involving quarantines, weakened armed forces, dwindling hospital space, and
the committed leadership of countries such as canada, with direct experience of a
pandemic and the resources to contain a new outbreak, is key in strengthening global
health governance.
