Global Health Security in an Era of Explosive Pandemic Potential
![handle is hein.journals/jnatselp9 and id is 58 raw text is:
SymposIUM 2016
STRENGTHENING NATIONAL SECURITY BY
PROTECTING PUBLIC HEALTH
Global Health Security in an Era of Explosive
Pandemic Potential
Lawrence 0. Gostin* & Ana S. Ayala**
INTRODUCTION
The world is becoming increasingly vulnerable to infectious diseases,' creat-
ing a serious threat to global health security that we must address before it
becomes unmanageable. In the past two decades alone, a series of global health
crises have emerged, ranging from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
and its phylogenetic cousin Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) to
highly pathogenic human influenza A (H5N1), pandemic influenza A (HiNi),
and Ebola virus disease. Currently, emerging threats with pandemic potential
include the ongoing Zika virus epidemic in the Americas,2 yellow fever in
Angola,3 and continuing human outbreaks of influenza A (H7N9) and A (H5N6)
in China.4 The human and economic toll of potentially explosive pandemics
will only increase unless we significantly reinforce the global health system.
With an ever-growing population and, consequently, greater food production
and animal-human interaction, the probability of zoonotic transmission has
increased. Moreover, globalization and urbanization have facilitated the risks of
contagion. Climate change threatens to alter the geographic areas of disease
vulnerability, such as greater risks of mosquito-borne diseases (e.g., dengue,
* University Professor, Founding O'Neill Chair in Global Health Law, and Faculty Director of the
O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center. © 2017,
Lawrence 0. Gostin and Ana S. Ayala.
** Global Health Law LL.M. Program Director, O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health
Law, Georgetown University Law Center.
1. K. E. Jones et al., Global Trends in Emerging Infectious Diseases, 451 NATURE 990, 990 (2008).
2. See D. Lucey & L.O. Gostin, The Emerging Zika Pandemic: Enhancing Preparedness, 315 JAMA
865 (2016).
3. See Daniel Lucey & Lawrence 0. Gostin, A Yellow Fever Epidemic: A New Global Health
Emergency?, 315 JAMA 2661, 2661 (2016); World Health Organization [WHO], Yellow Fever: Fact
Sheet, May 2016, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs100/en/; Andrew Green, Yellow Fever
Continues to Spread in Angola, 387 LANCET 2493 (2016).
4. See J.S. Malik Peiris et al., Interventions to Reduce Zoonotic and Pandemic Risks from Avian
Influenza in Asia, 16 LANCET INFECTIous DISEASES 252, 252-253 (2016); Xiaoyan Zhou et al., The Role
of Live Poultry Movement in the Epidemiology of Influenza A (H7N9): A Cross-sectional Observation
Study in Four Eastern China Provinces, 71 J. INFECTION 470 (2015).
53](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jnatselp9&div=7&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Global Health Security in an Era of Explosive Pandemic Potential
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most