2007 Annual Report - Foundation for the National Institutes of Health

GHSI: Global Health
Security Initiative
The Foundation for NIH was a lead sponsor of the
Eighth Ministerial Summit of the Global Health Security
Initiative (GHSI), held for the first time in the United States
last fall.
Formed in 2001, the GHSI works to protect public
health and security on a global scale by strengthening
preparedness and response to terrorist and health
threats such as biological, chemical, radiological, and
nuclear attack and pandemic influenza or other infectious
disease outbreaks.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael
O. Leavitt hosted his counterparts from Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and the United Kingdom,
as well as from the European Union and the World Health
Organization at the Bethesda campus of the NIH.
The summit featured three days of policy and technical
meetings, focused especially around laboratory networks,
radiological and nuclear threats, chemical events, risk
management and communications, and pandemic influenza.
The foundation organized several high-level panel
discussions, which included speakers such as Chairman
Charles A. Sanders, M.D., who spoke about public-private
partnerships, and Director of Science Daniel J. Carucci,
M.D., Ph.D., who spoke about the Grand Challenges in
Global Health Initiative.
Other summit sponsors include
AERAS Global TB Vaccine Foundation
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
BIO – Biotechnology Industry Organization
Elusys Therapeutics, Inc.
Pfizer Inc
PhRMA – Pharmaceutical Research
Manufacturers of America
Michael O. Leavitt,
Secretary, HHS
Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D.,
Director, NIH
Amy McGuire Porter,
Executive Director,
Foundation for NIH
Below are the GHSI Ministers
Infectious diseases, poor maternal and newborn
health, and malnutrition are responsible for
nearly half of all deaths in the developing world,
many of them preventable.
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