Health Experts: Holistic Disease Tracking, Response Would Improve International Security

March 31st, 2010- by Homeland Security Blogwatch

America needs to start treating international health work as less of a charity and more of a national security priority or face the threat of conflict with poorer countries, experts said at a U.S. Institute of Peace discussion Tuesday.

While groups such as the World Health Organization and wealthy nations have made major advancements in their ability to track and respond to epidemics, those efforts have done more to heighten global tensions than to relieve them, said Harley Feldbaum, director of the Global Health and Foreign Policy Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

Most nations with the ability to track diseases do so to protect their own populations, not those living in countries where health problems actually emerge, he said. As a result, global health could slip into the same political logjam as climate change, with poor countries angry and resentful of rich ones.