RIO DE JANEIRO, 30 July 2024 (PAHO) – Addressing inequalities and ensuring equitable access to healthcare were key challenges raised by Dr. Gervase Barbosa, Director-General of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), during the high-level event of the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“We all know that poverty and disease are a vicious cycle that must be broken,” Dr. Barbosa said during the event. The current state of global pandemic preparedness and response — but “when functioning properly, the health sector can help improve lives and reduce inequalities.”
Speaking at the event, which was also attended by Global Emergency Management Oversight Board Co-Chair Joy Pumafi, Dr Barbosa stressed the importance of fairness remaining at the forefront of discussions around a new pandemic agreement.
“The foundation of global disease surveillance is trust,” the PAHO director said. “We expect countries to be supported in sharing information, data and samples,” including access to diagnostics, protective equipment, medicines and vaccines. “If these expectations are not met, countries will reconsider sharing.”
“Equity is crucial,” Pumaphi added. “Equity in consultation, accountability, access and outcomes.”
When it comes to ensuring better pandemic preparedness and response, PAHO’s director and the co-chairs of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Committee agreed that while the world is better prepared than it was before the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic, there is still much work to be done.
“You can’t talk about prevention, preparedness and response as one discipline,” Pumaphi said. “They’re all interconnected.”
“We’re not here today, but we’re on our way there,” she added.
While there have been some positive developments in the Americas, such as improved genomic surveillance, recent amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) and the establishment of a pandemic fund, “we are still far from where we need to be to be prepared for the next pandemic,” Dr. Barbosa said.
“In most countries, One Health is still a concept that needs to be translated into concrete actions,” he added. “This is the only way to achieve early detection and improved response.”
The Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit 2024, organized by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 29-30 July 2024, bringing together senior government and global health officials from around the world.
The summit will focus on a range of issues critical to ensuring pandemic preparedness, including equitable access to vaccines, medicines and other health technologies, and strengthening disease surveillance.
