Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
for the pandemic. Most of the world's influnza vaccine is produced in only nine
developed countries, with europe producing 70 percent of the world's vaccines.
access to vaccines in the rest of the world is thus limited, especially countries in
the developing world: countries with production facilities may limit or ban the
export of vaccine to other countries after the onset of the pandemic ('Preparing for
a Pandemic' 2005). the lack of health system capacity is particularly a problem in
front-line countries, such as vietnam and Indonesia, where lack of financial support
has already compromised government capacities in containing the spread of bird
influenza (Bradscher 2005). In still other countries such as china, where rural people
lack access to health care and incentives to cover up remain strong, a disease outbreak
could quickly be out of control and spread around the globe before the international
community even became aware of it.
the likelihood of a rapid spread of infectious disease is related to another
important development: globalisation. a centuries-old dynamic, globalisation
today is different in that it features the rise of new tools, new actors, new rules,
and new markets (United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] 1999, 30).
with the spread of democracy and civil society groups, the emergence of global
networks of nongovernmental organisations (nGos), and the availability of new
tools such as the internet, cellular phones, and media networks, more direct power
is given to individuals than any time in history (Friedman and ramonet 1999). as
a result, a complete government information blackout becomes not only impossible
but also counterproductive (see Huang 2004). Meanwhile, globalisation leads to
the adoption of new rules that become more binding for national governments. In
May 2003, in response to SarS, the wHo was formally authorised to garner and
analyse data from non-state actors and to issue global alerts when international
public health was threatened by an infectious disease. Given that states historically
have sought to suppress the flow of information regarding endogenous epidemics,
the use of non-state information sources will expedite the flow of information
to the wHo, and therefore strengthen its outbreak alert and response activities. In
May 2005, the world Health assembly (wHa) adopted the revised International
Health regulations (IHr), which
provide an international legal framework for
preparedness for and responses to outbreaks. with the new IHr, the wHo has a
clearer framework to provide leadership on public health emergencies. In this sense,
globalisation promises to increase international disease surveillance capability and
mitigate the consequences of the pandemic when it occurs.
Yet globalisation is a double-edged sword. while the tools of globalisation can
be used to expose cover-ups and report disease outbreaks in a timely fashion, they
can also be used to spread panic, thus magnifying the negative impact of the disease.
Indeed, as 'the shrinking space, shrinking time and disappearing borders' link people's
lives 'more deeply, more intensely, more immediately than ever before' (UnDP
1999, 1), the vulnerability to disease outbreaks has only increased. as Singapore's
senior minister lee Kuan Yew (2004) observed, in earlier times new viruses would
have killed nearby villagers, but then the danger would have passed; with much
greater and faster movement of people and goods, the viruses travel swiftly and far.
