G20 china_web

Global healthcare
C James
Hospedales
A baby born with microcephaly undergoes
physical therapy in Joao Pessoa, Brazil
ANDRE PENNER/AP/PRESS ASSOCIATION IMAGES
Executive Director
Caribbean Public
Health Agency
C James Hospedales was appointed
the inaugural executive director
of the Caribbean Public Health
Agency in 2013. He was previously
the Coordinator of the Prevention
and Control of Chronic Diseases
at the Pan American Health
Organization. From 1998 to
2006, he was Director of the
Caribbean Epidemiology Centre.
Dr Hospedales was a member of
the Caribbean Commission on
Health and Development, which
made policy recommendations
to the Heads of Government and
named chronic diseases as a superpriority
for the region.
@CARPHA1
www.carpha.org
→ is multisectoral, includes natural
and deliberate events, and governments
have a leadership role. Zika is the latest
mosquito-borne virus pandemic in recent
times where the ease of spread across the
tropical world represents a glaring hole in
global health security.
The health and economic security
threats of infectious diseases – severe acute
respiratory syndrome cost $54 billion – are
insignificant compared to the NCDs of
diabetes, heart disease, cancer and mental
ill health, estimated to cost $47 trillion over
a 20-year period. NCDs are driven by the
demographic shift and factors such as
tobacco use, alcohol, unhealthy
eating and inactive living.
The obesity epidemic now
exceeds one billion persons
and is increasing in children.
Alarmingly, no country
has yet reversed an obesity
epidemic at the national level.
The obesogenic environments
driving this epidemic constitute a
threat to global health security.
Tackling health threats
Specific capacity building is needed to
strengthen all public health responses to
NCDs, violence and injuries, dementia and
mental health. It is needed in policy analysis
and development, multisector collaboration
and private-public partnerships, in health
monitoring, data analysis and research
in the social determinants of health, in
prevention programming, tobacco and
alcohol control, and in the promotion of
healthy eating and active living.
Dementia rates and long-term cost
burdens are rising exponentially, yet the
Twenty-year
estimated cost of
treating common NCDs
$47TN
risks are similar to NCDs. Depression and
harmful use of alcohol are the two mental
health issues strongly linked to NCDs.
The Caribbean Public Health Agency
(CARPHA) serves 24 countries and
territories, mostly small island developing
states, and is a model of a cost-effective,
pooled country approach to laboratory and
surveillance services to addressing health
threats, emergencies and disasters.
CARPHA develops policy for the
consideration of ministers and heads of
government, for example on Zika and other
threats to health security, and is the chair of
the Regional Coordination Mechanism
on Health Security. A small
agency in a complex,
tourism-dependent region,
CARPHA embraces
partnerships to addressing
health priorities. This
includes the hotel and
tourism industry for health
monitoring and response.
The Pan American Health
Organization, World Health Organization
and the CARICOM Secretariat are core
partners. The Centers for Disease Control
in the United States, the Public Health
Agency of Canada, Public Health England,
the World Bank and InterAmerican
Development Bank are also key partners in
regional health security.
This example of many small countries
pooling resources to address global health
security capacities is noteworthy. It could
be a model for other regional political and
economic integration blocs. This would help
meet the SDG 3.d. G20 leaders can help by
supporting and investing in such pooled
country approaches of small states. G20
186 G20 China: The Hangzhou Summit • September 2016 G7G20.com