Blog, Articles & Opinion
Ebola: Can Global Health Be Sustainably Promoted Without A Framework Convention for Global Health? By Eric A. Friedman, Lawrence O. Gostin, Mayowa Joel & Rotimi Sankore Few events remind us more of humanity’s shared health vulnerability than the outbreak of an untreatable, highly lethal disease that is resisting efforts to contain it, spreading from community to community, and across borders from country to country – like the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The human suffering, fear and even panic, impact on families and communities, and the economic hardships are immense. The greatest burdens are felt in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, with cases and fatalities confirmed in Lagos, Nigeria – one of Africa’s two most populous cities, along with Cairo, with a population of over 12 million – more than the population of Guinea, Liberia, or Sierra Leone.[1] There are also reports that cases are emerging in Senegal, and that Ebola has returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The international community is now scrambling to deal with a crisis, having failed for so long to take sustainable proactive measures needed to respond to global health hazards and pandemics, including the current Ebola outbreak. Where was a governing framework for global health – the spark to ignite the right to health for all – that could have built national and regional capacities to effectively prevent and contain such an uncontrolled outbreak in the first place? The Case for a Framework Convention for Global Health Binding international legal frameworks exist for everything from global threats like nuclear arms and climate change to economic concerns including trade and investment. Only several...
