Global health dangers ‘must be treated like threats of terrorism’
BRITAIN must tackle killer health threats from abroad in the same way it handles terrorism, because deadly infections know no borders, the chief medical officer has said.
In her final report before stepping down to become the first female master of Trinity College Cambridge, Prof Dame Sally Davies said the UK must adopt a similar approach to global health as it does with its counter-terrorism strategy.
The strategy brings together intelligence organisations from across the world to “prevent, pursue, protect and prepare” for a terrorist attack, and ensures countries act together swiftly in the event of an atrocity.
Dame Sally said Britain must adopt a similar approach to stop pandemics such as Ebola reaching UK shores. She called on the Government to publish a set of shared global health objectives by the end of the year.
She also said countries must work together to ensure global uptake of vaccinations or else see the resurgence of diseases that had been all but eradicated, as well as tackling other causes of ill health, such as pollution and poor diet. “A threat in one corner of the world is a threat to anywhere else,” Dame Sally told The Daily Telegraph. “We are only as strong as our weakest link … You only have to look at how infectious diseases can spread to understand that if [governments] are not able to cope in their own country, we will see them move across the world.
“We are globally interconnected. If we do not attend to our global linkage we put ourselves at risk.”
The government officer also warned that non-communicable diseases, such as heart disease, strokes and cancer, were rising at an alarming rate.
They are already the leading cause of death globally and by 2021 will become the leading causes of death in all low-income countries.
Dame Sally warned that focusing purely on domestic health risked failing to control the “shifting tide” of global threats. Britain already contributes expertise and support around the globe to ensure infectious diseases are contained.
NHS workers were on the front line of the 2014 Sierra Leone Ebola outbreak, and the Public Health Rapid Support Team is now assisting efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But Dame Sally said more needed to be done to ensure countries were working together.
In her report, she said: “Infectious diseases do not recognise borders but neither do the other things that affect our health.
“To improve health, we need to … recognise the role of factors such as pollution, the spread of health endangering misinformation, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and commercial activities (such as the creation and promotion of unhealthy foods).”