ATLANTA, Jan. 31: A recent report says that the United States is not at a danger level if it works along with foreign nations to cope up with infectious diseases. Officials said the reason behind is that the nations are connected by food and drinking water.
Dr. Tom Frieden, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s director, said that there are three main threats the agency has identified, in order): new and emerging pathogens such as H7N9 bird flu and the plague, drug resistance, including some strains of tuberculosis, and intentionally created bioweapons.
The Jan. 31 edition of the CDC’s journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, included two articles that focused on global health security projects in Uganda and Vietnam. It states that threats to global health security comprise of new and re-emerging pathogens, increasing antibiotic resistance and intentionally created bioweapons.
Frieden said, keeping the United States and the world safe from the threats of infectious disease can be accomplished by three steps, prevention, early detection and effective response to outbreaks.
“The health security of the United States is only as strong as the health security of all nations around the world. We are all connected by the food we eat, the water we drink, and air we breathe,” Frieden said in a statement.
“Stopping outbreaks where they start is the most effective and least costly way to prevent disease and save lives at home and abroad — and it’s the right thing to do.”
As an example, during six months of intensive collaboration, the CDC worked with Uganda’s Ministry of Health and Vietnam’s Ministry of Health to modernize diagnostic testing for high-risk pathogens, develop real-time information systems for faster outbreak response, and improve emergency operations procedures.
