Ready or not?
Is the world ready for another global health crisis? According to a new survey conducted by the World Bank, a significant percentage of the French, German, Japanese, UK and US public do not think so. The survey, Preparing for the next outbreak: public views on global infectious diseases and health security, involved 4,000 interviews with both members of the public and ‘opinion elites’ (i.e. people with university diplomas who closely follow global news events) across five countries, and found that 40 per cent of respondents think that another Ebola-style epidemic will occur during the next decade – and nearly a quarter were ‘not convinced’ that the global community is sufficiently prepared to deal with such an outbreak. Fewer than half believed that their own country was prepared for an epidemic, and of those who considered that the world in general was unprepared, the majority came from the US – 34 per cent of US respondents thought this.
Epidemics and global health crises represented the third biggest worry for survey respondents, after terrorism and global climate change, and when looking at global health specifically, global infectious diseases came top of the list of concerns, ahead of hunger, obesity, HIV/ AIDS and reproductive health.
“This survey shows that the public sees global infectious disease outbreaks as a serious threat,” said Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group, “and they want leaders to take action to prepare for the next potentially deadly epidemic. This heightened concern also translates into strong support for investments to strengthen health systems in vulnerable countries, as any country with a weak health system puts both its own citizens and the entire world at risk.”
The majority of survey respondents said that they supported investing in developing countries’ health infrastructure, to save money and prevent the spread of outbreaks.