NEWS RELEASE 

IDSA Urges Strengthened U.S. Leadership of Global Health Security Agenda

As Global Health Security Agenda partners meet in Indonesia this week to commit to their next steps in improving epidemic readiness worldwide, the Infectious Diseases Society of America is asking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to strengthen its leadership of efforts through the partnership. In a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, IDSA is urging increased support of the Global Health Security Agenda to combat antimicrobial resistance, increase immunization access, build health care workforces, and enhance capacities for medical countermeasures and personnel deployment in response to outbreaks.

A partnership of nations and international organizations initiated with direction and support from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Global Health Security Agenda was launched in the early days of the West Africa Ebola outbreak, before the extent of the international threat posed by that crisis was recognized. Aimed at pandemic prevention, the Global Health Security Agenda supports countries in meeting International Health Regulations, including by strengthening laboratory and surveillance systems, training field epidemiologists, and addressing the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance. Strengthened by emergency funding to combat the West Africa outbreak allocated by Congress in 2014, the Global Health Security Agenda now is comprised of 64 partner countries.

With that current allocated funding set to end in 2019, IDSA is urging renewed and expanded support for the Global Health Security Agenda, to ensure that infectious disease outbreaks are detected, prevented, and controlled where they originate.