In our increasingly interconnected and mobile world, infectious diseases are emerging and spreading at an unprecedented rate. An astounding 40 new diseases have been identified since the 1970s, and in the past five years alone, the World Health Organization (WHO) has verified over 1,100 epidemic events worldwide. This year's World Health Report, entitled A Safer Future: Global Public Health Security in the 21st Century, explores the unique challenges underlying today's most pressing public health threats. The WHO sends a clear message throughout the report: effectively preventing and responding to new and emerging public health risks will require enhanced international cooperation and transparency.
Global Public Health Threats in the 21st Century
The world now faces a myriad of public health threats originating from both human and environmental sources. With an estimated 2.1 billion airline passengers traveling in 2006, the rapid global spread of epidemic-prone diseases, such as Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, is a constant risk. Although the SARS virus was ultimately contained within 4 months, the human and economic toll in Asian countries included over 10,000 people infected and $60 billion of gross expenditure and business losses. Appearing shortly after the SARS outbreak, Avian Influenza is now the most feared public health threat in the world, although early warning has provided the international community with an unprecedented opportunity for planning and preparedness.
Inadequate surveillance or inconsistent policies in some countries presents a major challenge to achieving public health security worldwide. The emergence and spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa in the 1970s demonstrates the global consequences of failing to recognize or acknowledge a new disease threat quickly. By the time the presence of HIV/AIDS was recognized in the United States, the disease had traversed the world and infected many. More recently in 2003, a change in vaccination policy in Nigeria led to an outbreak of polio, a disease that had been virtually eliminated. The outbreak paralyzed thousands of children in Nigeria and spread the disease to 19 previously polio-free African countries.
Selected Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases, 1996-2004
Source: WHO, 2007.
The WHR 2007 discusses these and many other of the most critical public health threats in the 21st century, including:
- Foodborne diseases, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (commonly known as mad cow disease), which are facilitated by international food trade.
- Toxic chemical or radioactive accidents, such as the dumping of 500 tons of petrochemical waste around the city of Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, forcing over 90,000 to seek medical help.
- Bioterrorism, a risk made real by the U.S. anthrax letters in 2001.
- Environmental disasters, such as the European heat wave in 2003 that claimed at least 35,000 lives, but also including disease outbreaks associated with disasters such as floods.
- Conflict situations, which disable public health services and sometimes force millions of people into overcrowded camps with inadequate water and sanitation.
- Microbial adaptation and drug resistance, which has resulted in a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis in Africa (XDR-TB) and is emerging in HIV/AIDS.
Building a Safer Future
According to the WHR 2007, no single country is alone capable of preventing, detecting or responding to all public health threats. Strengthening public health security at the global level will require stepped up international cooperation, especially regarding those countries that lack resources, have weak health infrastructure, or are particularly vulnerable. The World Health Organization gives six key recommendations to improve global public health security:
- All countries must fully implement the International Health Regulations, which were revised in 2005 to include new and emerging public health threats.
- All countries must cooperate in surveillance and outbreak alert and response.
- Countries must share knowledge, technologies and materials openly. The health infrastructure of all countries must become a global responsibility.
- Cross-sector collaboration within governments should be improved.
- Global and national resources for health must be increased.
WHO Press Release
Global Disease Alert Map
Center for Disease Control's Public Health Information Network
EarthTrends Links
Human Health 2005 (data table)
Searchable Database: Population, Health, and Human Well-Being
Health, Environment, and Poverty (feature)
WHO Issues New Findings on Environment and Health
