Global Preparedness Requires More Than Just Additional Funding

Global Preparedness Requires More Than Just Additional Funding

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The Global Accountability Platform (COVID GAP) blog series. November 28, 2022 By Nellie Bristol The West African Ebola outbreak of 2014-2016 brought a surge of national and international attention to epidemic and pandemic preparedness including revamped or new country level capacity assessment tools. The assessments, including the voluntary Joint External Evaluation (JEE), State Parties Self-Assessment Annual Reporting (SPAR), and the Global Health Security Index, measure health emergency preparedness and response capacities, including those required by the International Health Regulations (IHR). The thinking was that if countries knew where their capacities were weak, they could develop National Action Plans for Health Security and devote funding toward strengthening them. But even with this renewed attention, country capacities continued to lag. Many countries struggled to translate the knowledge gained from the assessments into the competencies required to stifle emerging outbreaks. Sixteen years…
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Community Health Workers Critical for Pandemic Preparedness and Health Systems Strengthening

Community Health Workers Critical for Pandemic Preparedness and Health Systems Strengthening

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The Global Accountability Platform (COVID GAP) blog series. November 10, 2022 By Stephanie Stan Peru’s weak, fragmented, centralized health system hindered an effective COVID-19 response, especially in remote areas lacking infrastructure and adequate health services. The challenges particularly affected indigenous communities, which had a 3.18 times higher COVID-19 infection rate than Peru’s general population. Two-thirds of Peru’s indigenous communities lack a health post, leaving them without ready access to diagnostic tests, personal protective equipment such as masks, vaccination centers, and information on COVID-19 vaccines. In addition to inadequate infrastructure, interviews conducted in Summer 2022 through Duke’s Global Health Institute and the Duke Global Health Innovation Center identified cultural and geographic barriers to reaching Peru’s indigenous populations with pandemic countermeasures. For example, participants described traveling multiple days by boat to provide vaccinations to Amazonian communities and facing cultural and religious hesitancy…
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