How US can help ward off bio-terrorism

Last year, an outbreak of Ebola, the deadly hemorrhagic fever with no known cure, ravaged three countries in West Africa. This outbreak, which is still ongoing, has so far claimed more than 11,000 lives.

Even as Ebola ravages West Africa, the world is simultaneously battling deadly outbreaks of plague, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and avian influenza. Here at home there is a cholera outbreak that started early this year and has now been reported in 16 counties across the country.

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa brought to the fore the economic and humanitarian impacts of infectious diseases while the ongoing cholera outbreak points to an underlying malaise in the adoption and enforcement of basic public health principles, including the acquisition of data in real time to inform prevention strategies.

Outbreaks can start anywhere and spread as fast as an airplane. Within a matter of weeks from the time the Ebola outbreak was reported in West Africa, the disease was detected in neighbouring countries, Europe and even America. There was global panic and the epidemic had huge impacts on the travel and tourism sectors.

Kenya was no exception. Kenya Airways cancelled its flights to the affected countries and lost business opportunities in a lucrative market. Another example of the quick spread of outbreaks is the pandemic influenza outbreak of 2009.

Kenya reported cases within three months of detection of the outbreak in Mexico.

Kenya serves as a regional hub for international air travel and hosts major international organisations. In addition, the country shares common borders with countries that have had internal conflicts for a long time.

This makes the country vulnerable to importation of infectious diseases like polio and measles.

In the meantime, the world continues to be concerned about the constant threat of Ebola as well as the dangers posed by bio-terrorism and unsecured deadly pathogens.

We are conscious of the potential use of biological agents in terrorist activities against innocent people.

Some of these dangerous pathogens with bioterrorism potential are found in laboratories which may not be well secured.

It is dreadful to imagine what would happen if a terrorist group laid their hands on stored cultures of the bacterium which causes multi-drug resistant tuberculosis or the polio virus and used them in their evil designs.

To contain Ebola and other biological threats at source, the Obama administration in December 2014 launched the Global Health Security Agenda, a $6 billion initiative which envisions a world safe and secure from global health threats posed by infectious diseases.

 

It aims, where possible, to prevent or mitigate the impact of naturally occurring outbreaks and intentional or accidental releases of dangerous pathogens, rapidly detect and transparently report outbreaks when they occur, and employ an interconnected global network that can respond effectively to limit the spread of infectious disease outbreaks in humans and animals, mitigate human suffering and the loss of human life, and reduce economic impact before they threaten our global health security.

Kenya is one of the initial 10 countries prioritised by the Obama administration for support in the implementation of this agenda and is hoped that the investment will reduce the potential for future outbreaks of infectious disease that could follow a similarly devastating, costly, and destabilising trajectory.

At a White House event in September last year, while meeting ministers responsible for Health from 44 countries (including Kenya) preceding the launch of this initiative, President Obama said:

"We have to change our mindsets and start thinking about biological threats as the security threats that they are – in addition to being humanitarian threats and economic threats. We have to bring the same level of commitment and focus to these challenges as we do when meeting around more traditional security issues.

We've got to act quickly. And we've got to meet the commitments that we're making here today, and track our progress and hold each other accountable.''

Kenya considers the Global Health Security Agenda a timely initiative. This is because nationally and regionally, we need to enhance our public health security. Public health security involves the ability to prevent, rapidly detect and effectively respond to outbreaks when they occur.

In Kenya, the funding will help set up emergency operations centres to improve response to disease outbreaks; provide equipment and training to test patients, detect disease, and report data in real time and prevent antimicrobial resistance; ensure safe and secure laboratory capability; train health workers to end outbreaks before they become epidemics, including diseases of animal origin which also afflict humans (zoonotic); strengthen immunisation programmes.

This US engagement with Africa is a key signal of growing friendship.