Preparing for, preventing future pandemics

As many as 194 countries are currently negotiating the world’s first pandemic accord. Borne out of lessons learned from our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have agreed that we need new and more effective mechanisms and measures to be able to better prevent, prepare for, and respond to the next big public health threat.

In addition, negotiations are well underway on amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) to ensure that all countries are better positioned to identify and respond to outbreaks, so they do not spread and become global emergencies—or the next pandemic.

The countries involved in the two processes include every country in World Health Organization’s (WHO) Western Pacific region.

In our region of the world, we know both how devastating pandemics and other major public health events can be, as well as how to build resilience in our health systems and societies and the tools and mechanisms necessary to respond. Such experiences are invaluable in informing the development of the pandemic accord and updating the IHR.

Asia was the source of the first reported cases of COVID-19 and severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars). The latter led to the development of the IHR in 2005. Asia has also had extensive experience in preventing and responding to outbreaks of diseases such as influenza, Nipah virus, dengue fever, and malaria.

We are a region that has the muscle memory to know how to deal with outbreak threats. We already have significant skills, capacities, and elaborated plans in the areas of prevention, preparedness, and response.

Countries in the Western Pacific region, small and large, delivered some of the most effective responses to COVID-19 anywhere in the world.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which includes seven countries from our region, responded swiftly to the emerging crisis, including through the establishment of a COVID-19 Response Fund to boost emergency stockpiles for future outbreaks. It is now working toward the operationalization of an Asean Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases (ACPHEED).

Pacific countries and territories worked with the WHO Regional Office, the Pacific community, and other countries in the region to protect and vaccinate their populations.

But we must maintain focus and momentum; the world needs to do more. We saw the inequities in vaccine distribution during COVID-19, with many countries in the global South not having sufficient supplies or their own vaccine production capacity being forced to the back of the queue.

The sharing of pandemic pathogens and genome sequences contributes to risk assessment, prompt introduction of containment measures, and pandemic response products—not least vaccines. How to maintain and strengthen incentives for the private sector to invest in pandemic preparedness is also a critical issue. The world would also benefit from greater collaboration and financing for pandemics and other health emergency prevention and response.

An updated IHR and a widely ratified pandemic accord would improve the world’s collective response, the equity of that response, and the speed and comprehensiveness of preparedness and response measures.

WHO member states have already held six negotiating sessions for the pandemic accord and four on amendments to the IHR, as well as a joint meeting this July. For the pandemic accord, the text presented by the bureau is being discussed and meetings are scheduled for September, November, and December of this year. Further meetings on IHR amendments are scheduled for October and December.

Both processes are expected to conclude by May 2024 in time to report to that month’s World Health Assembly, which provided their mandate in the first place.

This is important—the fact that all 194 countries are involved in negotiating and influencing the outcomes of both processes. Only sovereign governments can decide what they want to be included in the accord and in an updated IHR, and only governments will ratify the accord once agreed.

It is especially important that the knowledge and experiences of our region, rich in diversity, be reflected in the discussion for better and functioning international frameworks. The active participation of countries of the region in the discussions is highly beneficial.

The pandemic accord and the IHR amendments represent a once-in-a-generation opportunity to better protect the world from large outbreaks of infectious diseases and the ongoing threat of pandemics. It is critical that we heed the lessons learned from COVID-19 to make quantum improvements in the way the world prevents, prepares for, and responds to these outbreaks and pandemic threats.

Let us support our government to realize the best possible outcomes from these negotiations with the principle of equity at their core. The entire world stands to benefit. The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network

Ashley Bloomfield, a professor at University of Auckland and former director-general of health of New Zealand, is WGIHR cochair from the Western Pacific region. Kazuho Taguchi of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan is former INB vice chair from the Western Pacific region.

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The Philippine Daily Inquirer is a member of the Asia News Network, an alliance of 22 media titles in the region.