Members of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) attended the Global Health Security Congress (GHSC) in Sydney, Australia, from June 18 to June 21, 2024, to discuss with other international organizations how they can collaborate on biosafety, biosecurity, and biosurveillance measures to make the world safer for everyone. Members participated in panel discussions and breakout sessions with partners from around the world, and Dr. Ada Bacchetti, Director of DTRA’s Collaborative Threat Reduction and Biological Threat Reduction Programs (BTRP) Division, spoke on two main panels and moderated a breakout session.
BTRP Senior Advisor Deidre Williams also moderated several panels, including Financing Global Health Security. Speaking about the positive impact of the conference, Williams said, “Conferences like this are so important because they bring together experts with different expertise from different sectors – governments, nonprofits, NGOs, international organizations – to work together as a global community to address similar problems so we can prevent the next pandemic and be better prepared to deal with the next biological threat we may face.”
During the meeting, attendees were able to discuss lessons learned and ways to share resources with each other to prevent global biological pandemics. Attendees had the opportunity to build collaborative and transparent partnerships. One of DTRA’s strongest partnerships is with Dr. Lucas de Toca, Australia’s Global Health Ambassador. “There is deep personal and organizational trust and our goals are aligned, so working together is natural,” Dr. de Toca said of his partnership with DTRA.
While this conference was very beneficial for all partners, there is still much work to be done. Vigilance against and responses to emerging biological threats are always at the forefront. After this event, it is clear that these global partners have aligned goals and built a strong partnership to tackle the full range of biological threat challenges together. Reflecting on the end of the conference, Williams said, “It’s great to have a conference like this that brings together so many representatives with different perspectives and expertise to share how we each address health security issues and build closer collaboration on this topic.”
For more information about DTRA and its programs, visit www.dtra.mil.
Data collected: | June 28, 2024 |
Posted on: | June 28, 2024 11:42 |
Story ID: | 475137 |
position: | Australia |
Web view: | 8 |
download: | 0 |
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