India Joins U.S.-Led Initiative To Boost Health Security

Experts say threats arise mainly from five known sources -- globalization of travel and food supply; rise of drug-resistant pathogens; emergence and spread of new microbes; acceleration of biological science capabilities and the risk that these capabilities may cause the inadvertent or intentional release of pathogens; and continued concerns about terrorist acquisition, development, and use of biological agents.

WHO reports that multidrug-resistant tuberculosis has infected a half-million people worldwide. Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) is an antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria that is deadly and can even spread its resistance capabilities to other bacteria colonies.

And when countries lack the will or the ability to detect and contain diseases, they spread faster than ever before with increased global travel and trade, impacting negatively the productivity and quality of life in many countries and regions of the world.

It is estimated that the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, inflicted damages of $30 billion to regional economies in just four months. The 2001 anthrax attacks cost more than $1 billion to clean up. For decades, AIDS spread silently before detection and response, causing many deaths and untold miseries.

The GHSA aims to prevent avoidable epidemics by keeping to a minimum the number of labs worldwide that store dangerous microbes and by extending vaccination programmes. According to Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the initiative will make sure if countries are growing dangerous. organisms in laboratories they are kept safely.

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