Addressing health equity is key to ensuring better pandemic preparedness, PAHO Director says

Rio de Janeiro, 30 July 2024 (PAHO) – Addressing inequality and ensuring equitable access to health were key issues raised by Pan American Health Organization Director (PAHO), Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, during a high-level event at the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit 2024, in Rio de Janeiro Brazil.

“We all know that poverty and disease is a vicious cycle that we have to break,” Dr. Barbosa said during the event — The state of global pandemic preparedness and response — but “when the health sector works properly, it can contribute to improving lives and reducing inequality.”

During the event, which included the participation of Joy Phumaphi, Co-Chair of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, Dr. Barbosa also reinforced the importance of ensuring that equity remains front and center of discussions around the new pandemic agreement.

“The main basis of global disease surveillance is trust,” the PAHO Director said. “When a country shares information, data, samples, they expect to receive support,” including access to diagnostics, protective equipment, medicines, and vaccines. “If we do not meet these expectations, countries will think twice” about sharing.

“Equity is extremely important,” Phumaphi added. “Equity in consultation, in responsibility, in access and in outcomes.”

When it comes to ensuring better pandemic preparedness and response, the PAHO Director and Global Preparedness Monitoring Board Co-Chair agreed that while the world is better prepared than before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, much remains to be done.

“You can’t talk about prevention, preparedness and response in one single silo,” Phumaphi said. “Everything is interrelated.”

“We are not here today but we are getting there,” she added.

While there have been some positive developments in terms of improved genomic surveillance, the recent amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) and the creation of the Pandemic Fund, in the Americas “we are still far from where we need to be to be better 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 we have to provide early detection and to improve response.”

Organized by the Ministry of Health of Brazil, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit 2024, which takes Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 29-30 July 2024, convenes high-level officials from governments and global health from all over the world.

The Summit will focus on a variety of issues key to ensuring pandemic preparedness, including equitable access to vaccines, medicines and other health technologies, and enhancing disease surveillance, among other issues.

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