More than at any previous time in history, global public health security depends on international cooperation and the willingness of all countries to act effectively in tackling new and emerging threats. That is the clear message of this year's World health report entitled A safer future: global public health security in the 21st century, which concludes with six key recommendations to secure the highest level of global public health security: Full implementation of the revised International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) by all countries;
Global cooperation in surveillance and outbreak alert and response; Open sharing of knowledge, technologies and materials, including viruses and other laboratory samples, necessary to optimize secure global public health; Global responsibility for capacity building within the public health infrastructure of all countries; cross-sector collaboration within governments; and Increased global and national resources for training, surveillance, laboratory capacity, response networks, and prevention campaigns. In our increasingly interconnected world, new diseases are emerging at an unprecedented rate, often with the ability to cross borders rapidly and spread. Since 1967, at least 39 new pathogens have been identified, including HIV, Ebola haemorrhagic fever, Marburg fever and SARS. Other centuries-old threats, such as pandemic influenza, malaria and tuberculosis, continue to pose a threat to health through a combination of mutation, rising resistance to antimicrobial medicines and weak health systems. Universal vulnerability
Key words: Medical health, international spread of disease,
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