WHO Chief Urges World Leaders to Finish Pandemic Treaty Amid Ongoing Disease Crises

UPDATE - follow-up to Ebola reminder of urgent need to finish pandemic treaty: WHO chief: World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to finish a global pandemic treaty as a new meeting opened in Geneva on Monday.

Current Outbreaks

Tedros pointed to ongoing deadly disease outbreaks to stress that completing the agreement is about protecting people everywhere. He noted that the recent hantavirus outbreak killed three people on a cruise ship in April, while an Ebola epidemic declared in May has infected more than 10,000 people and killed nearly 5,000 mostly in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Remaining Obstacle

Rich countries and developing nations are still arguing over how the agreement will work in practice. When countries agreed to a framework in May, they left out the hard issue of the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing system. This PABS system covers how to share access to dangerous pathogens and the vaccines, tests, and treatments made from them. Tedros called PABS the last remaining piece of the puzzle and warned that vaccine inequity during Covid-19 cost lives and prolonged that pandemic.

Context

Global health bodies like the World Health Organization work to coordinate international responses to disease threats that cross national borders. Treaties of this kind aim to set clear rules so that life-saving medical supplies are shared fairly rather than hoarded by wealthy nations during a health emergency.