Microbes don't know geography - WHO report

Public health is threatened on a global scale, and the prospect of a safer future will depend on countries working together to identify risks and acting to contain and control them, warned the WHO World Health Report 2007, entitled A Safer Future, released on Thursday.

"Some of the most serious threats to human existence are likely to emerge without warning. It would be extremely naive and complacent to assume that there will not be another disease like AIDS, another Ebola, another SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome], sooner or later," it said.

With infectious diseases emerging faster than ever before, closer global cooperation is vital to tackle the growing health threat, and "no single country ... can alone prevent, detect and respond to all public-health threats."

According to WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan, "New diseases are emerging at the historically unprecedented rate of one per year ... given today's universal vulnerability to these threats, better security calls for global solidarity. International public health security is both a collective aspiration and a mutual responsibility."

Read the full report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=73901