SIG on COVID-19
Scope 1 Malaysia Infectious Disease Outbreak Preparedness and Response Global Preparedness for the Pandemic The world community, through WHO, has been preparing for a pandemic for a long time. Preparedness, through national core capacities strengthening to detect, prepare for and respond to health emergencies, such as a severe pandemic, is the cornerstone of handling public health emergency. One of the important WHO instruments is the IHR (2005). IHR provides an overarching legal framework that defines the countries’ rights and obligations in handling public health events and emergencies that have the potential to cross international borders. It is an instrument of international law that is legally-binding on 196 countries, including the 194 WHO Member States (WHO, 2021). WHO outlined the 7 areas of work to assist member states in meeting the obligations of the IHR. The 7 areas of work are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Foster global partnerships Strengthen national disease prevention, surveillance, control, and response systems Strengthen public health security in travel and transport Strengthen WHO global alert and response systems Strengthen the management of specific risks Sustain rights, obligations, and procedures Conduct studies and monitor progress
Strengthening national disease prevention, surveillance, control and response systems capacity will enhance disease prevention, surveillance, control and response systems at international level (WHO, 2007). It is important to appreciate that when we are dealing with a pandemic, we are dealing with something novel, an infection that is new. Thus, initially not much is known about SARS-CoV-2 virus, how it spread, what its infectivity like, who are at risk, what is the nature and severity of the disease it causes and how to prevent and treat the infection. Being new, everyone is susceptible and therefore there is potential for a sudden surge in cases, that may overwhelm the healthcare and cripple the socio-economic systems. An effective and efficient surveillance system will keep us on alert and our capacities readiness to diagnose and mount immediate containment response. It would also allow us to buy the precious time to prepare the healthcare system, socio-economic governance and the people to brace through the pandemic in the long run, either towards the goal of ultimately ending the pandemic or to learn to live with the infection in an endemic state (Figure 2). These are the broad objectives of IHR and national capacity building. A more recent development specifically towards pandemic preparedness was the establishment of the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework, or PIP-Framework. It was developed by member states, unanimously adopted at the 64th World Health Assembly, and came into effect on 24th May 2011 (WHO, 2011). Its key goal is to improve and strengthen sharing of influenza viruses with pandemic potential and to improve access of developing countries to vaccines and other related supplies. The Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS), a network of WHO National Influenza and Collaborating Centres, play a key role in coordinating influenza surveillance and sharing of biological materials (Hay and McCauley, 2018). By accessing these materials, i.e., the virus, which is the key element in the development of vaccines and other related supplies, industries signed Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) and contributed to PIP-Framework, to a tune of USD28 million annually. This fund is used towards capacity building of member states in the areas of disease burden studies, pandemic preparedness and deployment planning, risk communication and community engagement, regulatory capacity and laboratory and surveillance capacity.
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