Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
institutional changes are required to lead humanity out from the shadow of another
influenza pandemic.
Developing countries might still view it as hypocritical or self-serving that the
new global health agenda has put a premium on those diseases that pose a threat
to the wealthy (such as ebola, SarS, and now avian influenza), while discounting
the non-acute or non-epidemic infections (such as cholera or typhoid) that remain
largely confined to the global South. But an influenza pandemic is different from
other emerging infectious diseases given its frightening potential to overwhelm the
entire international system—a risk never associated with either HIv or malaria,
despite their destructive impact on individual countries (osterholm 2005).
It is necessary to balance the narrow focus on containing avian influenza with
a broader public health strategy to solve the healthcare crisis in general. However,
these are two interconnected imperatives: a preparedness plan for avian influenza
would automatically feed into the parallel efforts to strengthen the public health
system, while investment in national healthcare infrastructures and development is
an investment in the global future.
The Human Rights Perspective: Fundamental Liberties, Social Cohesion,
and Distributive Justice
Human rights considerations, if embedded in national public health legislation
and supported by monitored international agreements, can help communities
maintain the delicate balance between public health and individual rights in the
face of quarantines, isolation, civil liberties, triage, and restrictions on work, trade,
immigration, assembly, and travel. the refusal of one healthcare worker to comply
with voluntary isolation measures was responsible for infecting dozens with SarS
in a toronto religious community. Draconian measures may be unavoidable in some
cases, but civil society must be able to ascertain that such measures are transparent,
lawful, and warranted. by the same token, civil society organisations must also
ensure that their members respect the voluntary or mandatory codes in the interest
of public safety, be they local trade unions, faith groups, or community associations.
civil society's higher rate of popular trust imposes on it a special obligation to take
community leadership on these issues.
There is also a danger that a pandemic could create ethno-racial fissures rather than
unity and inter-communal tolerance if, for instance, a disease erupts predominantly
in a single ethnic group. a human rights approach could help a multicultural society
such as canada avert this outcome to dispel the perception of racism-minded
marginalisation or ghetto-isation of ethnic neighbourhoods especially hard hit by
avian influenza.
the same human rights perspective should guide policy makers in managing
the legal and socioeconomic consequences of the pandemic—an issue altogether
separate from managing the outbreak. the need for distributive justice and fairness, so
frequently emphasised by civil society groups, sits squarely within this framework.
