The Truth about Ebola: Global Health Leaders Try to Fight Panic with Information

Tara Ornstein, Contributing Blogger The leaders of the global health community have sought to quell the hysteria surrounding the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. On 14 August 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement confirming that the risk of...
The WHO Meeting on Controversial H5N1 Research: What Happened, and What Does It Mean?- David Fidler

The WHO Meeting on Controversial H5N1 Research: What Happened, and What Does It Mean?- David Fidler

The WHO Meeting on Controversial H5N1 Research: What Happened, and What Does It Mean? David P. Fidler, GHG Contributing Blogger James Louis Calamaras Professor of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law The conclusion of the much anticipated meeting at the World...
The WHO Meeting on Controversial H5N1 Research – David Fidler

The WHO Meeting on Controversial H5N1 Research – David Fidler

The WHO Meeting on Controversial H5N1 Research: What Implications for Global Health Governance? David P. Fidler, Contributing GHG Blogger James Louis Calamaras Professor of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law The World Health Organization (WHO) is hosting a...
Global Health Security: Closing the Gaps in Responding to Infectious Disease Emergencies

Global Health Security: Closing the Gaps in Responding to Infectious Disease Emergencies

Rising concerns about the human, political, and economic costs of emerging infectious disease threats and deliberate epidemics have highlighted the important connection between global public health and security. This realization has led security communities, particularly in the U.S., to seek ways to bolster the international health response to public health emergencies as a means of protecting national security. While there have been important recent efforts to strengthen international response to infectious disease threats, there are areas that deserve more attention from both the health and security communities. In this article, we describe two important gaps in international frameworks that govern the response to global public health threats which can negatively affect the security of states: (1) despite attempts to strengthen international rules for responding to public health emergencies, there continues to be strong disincentives for states to report disease outbreaks; and (2) systems for detecting and responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases are hindered by a lack of standards of practice for sharing biological samples and specimens. To address these gaps in global governance of infectious disease threats, additional incentives are needed for states to report disease outbreaks to the international community; there should be greater enforcement of countries’ international health obligations; and both political and scientific communities should develop workable practice standards for sharing biological samples of all types.