World must be better prepared, PM warns
Plans have been unveiled to strengthen the UK's response to health pandemics, such as the recent Ebola outbreak in west Africa.
Prime Minister David Cameron used the G7 Summit in Germany (7-8 June) to outline the new plans, which include a rapid reaction team who will act as 'disease detectives'.
With more than 27,000 reported cases and over 11,000 deaths, the Ebola pandemic is one of the worst seen in modern times.
Mr Cameron warned other G7 leaders that the world needs to be "far better prepared" for future pandemics that may be even harder to cope with than the Ebola outbreak.
Speaking before the event he said: "The reality is that we will face an outbreak like Ebola again and that virus could be more aggressive and more difficult to contain. It is time to wake up to that threat."
Although the number of new Ebola cases has fallen drastically, experts have warned that a more virulent disease spread by coughing, for example, would be far more devastating if better approaches are not adopted.
The UK's plan involves:
Drug development: Collaboration between leading pharmaceutical companies, research centres, universities and disease experts. An initial £20 million investment will be focused on the most pressing global health threats, including Ebola, Lassa, Marburg and Crimean-Congo fever.
Better co-operation and transparency: From now, any UK-funded research, data or disease control operations must be openly available. The UK will seek to develop an international agreement allowing the results of all clinical vaccine trials for relevant diseases to be published. The chief medical officer will work with the World Health Organisation to develop an enhanced system for sharing data on diseases with health agencies and doctors and nurses on the frontline.
Rapid reaction unit: A group of six to 10 experts will be on permanent standby, ready to be deployed and help with the response to disease outbreaks. This will include understanding what the disease is, how it spreads, how fast it is spreading and the required response. If the outbreak is not contained early, a 'reservist force' of hundreds of doctors, nurses and public health experts will be deployed.
Image ©Ben Fisher/GAVI Alliance/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0
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