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Commission on Global Health Risk Framework for the Future Ronald St. John, MD, MPH Jul 29,2015

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WHO is best positioned to address global alert. 70 years of relationships with member states; Organizational structure of Country and Regional Offices Looked to for leadership and authoritative source for technical information and assistance. Custodian of IHR Adaptation to instant information age

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A Spectrum of Capacities Emerging Economy; Limited capacities Advanced Economy; Advanced capacities The Players : GOARN, NGOs, Government agencies (not GOARN),, others

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MERS Epi Curve South Korea Source: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/coronavirus_infections/http://www.who.int/csr/disease/coronavirus_infections/ maps-epicurves/en/

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MERS CoV in South Korea The Positive Technical support HQ WPRO The Not So Positive IMS deployment principles, concepts, policies, procedures, processes Surge capacity

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Ebola in Latin America and the Caribbean There were no Ebola cases (not yet). There was Dallas, Texas, and a wakeup call at highest political levels. PAHO immediately asked for technical support to assess and improve levels of preparedness

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Response First ever formal activation of IMS First ever naming of incident manager with authorities Admin procedures streamlined IMS used to manage preparedness activities Multidisciplinary team 24 technical missions technical guidance IHR false alarms managed immediate unrestricted funding from Brazil $1.5M for operations

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Some LAC Issues Member State IHR capacities variable; improvement may take 5 years or more, but funding is not identified Health Infrastructure highly variable, often fragmented and complex Health care vulnerabilities (IPC) PAHO Country Office IMS capacities vary

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Challenges IMS in health sector Surge capacity

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A Fundamental Question: How Many Fire Trucks Do You Need? City Province Country