Countries participating in the World Health Organization meetings this week are discussing how to prepare for any future pandemics, amid warnings that the world is exposed to a future crisis.
The organization’s emergencies director, Michael Ryan, said on Wednesday that poor public health services and poor city management exacerbate infectious diseases.
Speaking about the spread of monkeypox in areas where it is not prevalent, he said that the spread of the virus is “directly related to our inability or unwillingness to manage these risks early in the epidemic generation cycle.”
The Covid crisis has exposed major shortcomings in global health systems, and countries agreed last year on the need for many changes to better prepare the world to face future threats.
As the World Health Assembly (the decision-making body of the World Health Organization) convenes this week, the 194 member states are calling for progress in closing the preparedness gaps that have contributed to the global spread of Covid, which has claimed millions of lives and destroyed economies.
Ryan also warned of loopholes in oversight.
And the number of Covid examinations conducted by many countries of the world has decreased in recent months, which means that the virus is likely to spread and mutate in the absence of follow-up.
“We need data. We are losing the ability to predict what this epidemic will turn out to be and the ability to anticipate the emergence of another,” Ryan said.
In turn, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned countries that there was no more time to waste.
He said before the assembly that “building emergency health preparedness, response and resilience is an urgent priority, given that the epidemic revealed that the world was and still is not ready.”
Amendments are being considered to the International Health Regulations, a set of legally binding international laws that govern how countries respond to acute global health risks.
Negotiations are also underway towards a new “legal instrument” (possibly a treaty) aimed at defining a coordinated global approach to preparedness and response.
A report on the new tool will be submitted to the World Health Assembly for the year 2023, while the final result will be presented for consideration at the Assembly in 2024.
“A legally binding instrument that represents a pledge to future generations to ensure that the world is able to respond to the next pandemic or health emergency,” Tedros said.
The International Health Regulations (IHR) adopted in 2005 set out the rights and obligations of states in dealing with health emergencies that could spread.
It also defines what could be described as a public emergency of international concern, the highest risk level on the WHO scale.