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

The CDC conducted two global health security demonstration projects last year in partnership with Vietnam and Uganda to strengthen laboratory systems, develop strong public health emergency operations centres and create real-time data sharing in health emergencies. It would replicate the two projects in 10 more countries this year.

The GHSA aims to detect threats early by linking disease-monitoring systems of individual countries, developing real-time electronic reporting systems, and promoting faster sharing of biological samples, such as throat swabs and blood samples from people with a new form of influenza.

But experts say it is going to be a long haul and say 80 percent of the nations are not prepared to deal with new pandemics. Even the targets of the WHO-monitored 2005 agreement under which 194 countries had vowed to strengthen surveillance systems by 2012 had not been met.

Also, there could be other issues at play, such as a sovereign state's ownership rights over pathogens found within national borders and its decision not to share disease samples. In 2007, Indonesia had invoked "viral sovereignty" and argued that it was unfair to expect it to send samples of H5N1 avian influenza virus to Western laboratories that could be used by pharma companies to produce a vaccine which would then be sold at prices that most Indonesians could not afford.

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