The White House has announced the release of a new Global Health Security Strategy, which it says defines the actions the Administration plans to take to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats. Biological threats and pandemics are two areas of particular focus, said President Trump in his address, noting the 2018 release the National Biodefense Strategy in September 2018 to prepare for and combat biological threats.
Strengthening global health security capacities is another goal as the U.S. works with partner countries to ensure they are also ready to respond to health security threats. “The United States is working with international partners to help improve the world’s ability to stop and contain infectious disease outbreaks before they spread between countries,” said the White House statement. “Under our new Strategy, the United States will work to ensure that every partner country has a plan to achieve self-reliance in the critical area of health security.”
The 2019 Global Health Security Strategy will achieve the following:
· support the use of the World Health Organization’s Joint External Evaluation process to help implement the International Health Regulations
· assist its international partners to help improve their performance in priority areas
· encourage countries to strengthen their technical capacities and will support select partner countries in areas such as emergency preparedness and disease surveillance
· utilize collective global action to combat global health security threats
· use bilateral, regional, and multilateral engagements to encourage countries to make health security a national priority
· coordinate with partner governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to promote sustainable financing to build health security capacity
· push for a transparent and accountable framework to encourage donors and countries to fulfill their financial commitments to global health security
· increase international support to enhance preparedness and response mechanisms to combat infectious diseases at home and abroad
