4. Priorities for Global Research and Development of Interventions

Outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases are by their nature unpredictable. They can be contained when they are detected early and the number of cases is small. When they are not contained, they can have enormous human and economic consequences. Economic losses attributed to SARS, which infected 8,000 people and killed 774, have been estimated at US$30 million per day in Canada and a total of US$16 billion to US$30 billion in Asia.

The global response to the SARS epidemic demonstrated the power of international collaboration under leadership of WHO among public health professionals, researchers, and institutions in several countries to halt the progression of a new disease (La Montagne and others 2004). Another example is influenza: an existing international network of influenza research sites, which is critical for defining the strains to be used each year for immunization, was instrumental in developing an unprecedented rapid response to the potentially devastating bird H5N1 influenza A.

These examples represent an important paradigm shift in global research collaboration in that they required national surveillance at the epidemiological and laboratory levels; unprecedented sharing of information at all levels of the health system; and close cooperation among clinicians, epidemiologists, and bench scientists, as well as those involved in veterinary surveillance, for the rapid development of effective intervention strategies. Integrated global responses raise difficult issues pertaining to information sharing and ownership of specimens and reagents, which have profound implications for future global health R&D. They also underscore that, despite the political temptations of denial and the economic threats of epidemic disease, honest and accurate information is essential for early warning and for making effective health policy.

Source: Authors.