Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In chapter 6, 'the role of civil Society in Pandemic Preparedness', Kathryn
White and Maria Banda examine the challenge of avian influenza and what response
is needed for society to be prepared for a global outbreak. they discuss how the
inclusion of multiple levels and areas of society can benefit the planning for and
the prevention of a pandemic. Beginning with the evolution of avian influenza,
and the possible lessons learned from each of the responses seen thus far, they look
at past failures and potential successes of the global health system and the possible
role civil society can play. turning to governance, they suggest that numerous
actors are needed from a wide range of areas, including health, agriculture, trade,
the environment, development, and civil society. the best approaches to controlling
infectious disease are both transnational and multi-actor. Avian influenza requires a
four-part response: a genuine commitment to human development, a dependable and
all encompassing human rights system, a public security framework to deal with the
security threats of ill health, and a new attitude toward environmental responsibilities
that takes food security more seriously. only when an all-encompassing plan is in
place will an investment in global health governance be truly entrenched and society
adequately prepared for a pandemic, whether it be avian influenza or some other
infectious disease.
In Chapter 7, 'In-Flew-Enza: Pandemic Influenza and Its Security Implications',
Yanzhong Huang examines the potential implications of a virulent influenza
pandemic on the international economy, on sociopolitical stability within states, and
on regional security. He offers recommendations aimed at mitigating the identified
risks. the world has changed since the last virulent influenza pandemic in 1918.
Improvements have come from the increased prominence of public health within
the political arena, the many advances in health sciences and care delivery, the vast
improvements in communications technology, the multilayered network of non-state
actors involved in health promotion and health care, and the existence of the wHo
with a well-defined mandate to provide leadership during public health emergencies.
However, 4 billion additional prospective human hosts in a world where access to
health resources disproportionately favours populations in wealthy countries, where
significantly higher levels of the population live in impoverished settings,
where incentives to suppress information in certain jurisdictions remain strong,
and where both people and goods cross borders at unprecedented rates may erode
any advantage for population health. A future influenza pandemic may well be very
damaging to the international economy, especially if its epidemiology resembles
the pandemic of 1918. the SarS case suggests that how governments respond to a
pandemic can greatly affect social and political stability. International security could
be compromised if peacekeeping operations are interrupted or if governments resort
to deliberately stoking sectarian tensions to detract from state failures. Governments
should thus increase public health expenditures, increase capacity in developing
countries through monetary aid as well as knowledge and technology transfer,
strengthen national healthcare surge capacity while balancing influenza preparedness
investments with other important infectious disease programmes, and improve risk
communication skills and ties with civil society groups.
