Geneva, 22 May 2016 (PAHO/WHO) — At a meeting of the health authorities of 34 Commonwealth countries, 13 of which are in the Region of the Americas, the Commonwealth Health Ministers pointed out that efforts toward the achievement of universal health coverage may be jeopardized by the challenges facing national health systems, such as Ebola and, more recently, Zika virus outbreaks. The ministers highlighted the importance of strengthening health systems to face these threats.
"The recent Zika outbreak, which has been confirmed in the Americas and has the potential to reach new regions, highlights the need to strengthen health systems to ensure resilience," the ministers noted at the end of the meeting in a joint statement that will be presented at the World Health Assembly this week.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Margaret Chan, said that the achievement of global health security depends on having strong health systems in place everywhere. Given the lessons learned after the Ebola outbreak and, more recently, the Zika virus outbreak, Chan noted that an early warning system to detect and respond to unusual events in health must be considered an integral part of health systems. The Commonwealth, as a collective force, has a very prominent role to play in helping countries improve these systems and achieve universal health coverage, Chan said.
In her opening remarks, the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Patricia Scotland, referred to current threats to health security and to the need for focusing on multisectoral responses, not only from the health sector. She noted that, after the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, countries should ask themselves what they have learned that will better prepare them for future outbreaks. "That crisis taught us that we need to get better at detecting early warnings and at rapidly upscaling responses and prevention measures", said Scotland, who is from Dominica.
In a panel that analyzed different responses to outbreaks, the Minister of Health of Barbados, John Boyce, spoke about the response to the ongoing Zika outbreak in the Region of the Americas. He stressed that areas with large flows of tourists, such as the Caribbean, should review their health systems with a view to confronting emerging diseases. He explained that viruses such as chikungunya and Zika should be viewed as threats to global health, and that, for this reason, health security should be viewed not as something that States must address alone, but together, and that other sectors must also be involved in making health systems even stronger.
The Commonwealth Health Ministers meet each year, on the eve of the World Health Assembly, to discuss subjects of mutual interest. The Commonwealth, a voluntary association of over 50 states around the world that, for the most part, share a common history as former British colonies, includes 13 countries in the Region of the Americas.
Links
— PAHO/World Health Assembly
— hStatement of the Commonwealth Health Ministers