Health for Humanity:  Holistic Approaches to Pandemic Risk and Response

June 15–17, 2014

Highland Resort Conference Centre, Aviemore, Scotland

Conference website:  www.healthforhumanity.info

Conference Overview

Participants from African countries and beyond will gather in Abuja, Nigeria, 13-16 May 2014, for the 5th Africa Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Overview

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi. An increasing number of governments around the world are devoting efforts to a problem so serious that it threatens the achievements of modern medicine. A post-antibiotic era – in which common infections and minor injuries can kill – far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st Century.

5 May 2014, ABU DHABI/GENEVA - New technologies that enable communities to visualize disaster risk and take action, are to be made available for cities worldwide as a result of collaboration between Esri and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

From 2003 through 31 December 2013, 648 laboratory-confirmed human cases of avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infection have been officially reported to WHO from 15 countries. Of these cases, 384 died.

H5N1 viruses are considered endemic in poultry in at least six countries (alphabetically: Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Vietnam) with sporadic detection in wild birds and poultry outbreaks occurring in other countries. The virus also is circulating widely in other countries in those regions. 

Dear Colleagues,

Members of the Towards A Safer World (TASW) network are committed to improving their expertise and increasing their effectiveness.  They do this by exchanging, testing, refining and promoting their approaches, drawing on lessons of experience, and building a compendium of best practice.  They offer examples to each other, they identify techniques they have found to be useful, and they ensure that all have a chance to see research outputs, project reports and case studies that might be useful.   They do this through exchanging information  either face to face or via the TASW network newsletter.  This is the fifth issue of the newsletter.  Each issue isavailable on TASW website at http://www.towardsasaferworld.org . Feedback from network members suggests that they are appreciated by members of the network and by wide range of other stakeholders.

By Noel L.J. Miranda, DVM, MSc, FellPCVPH The coming together of One Health and Disaster Resilience is premised on the principles described above- that from a broader view of the interconnectedness of the determinants of human health and wellbeing, “One Health” must broadly interrelate within “One Resilience”- where the independent resilience of all elements that impact on human health and wellbeing converge to achieving societal resilience.

Each year, the 133 UNICEF country offices around the globe respond to an average of 250 emergencies, including such diverse crises as floods, droughts, earthquakes, epidemics and conflicts, among others. Nevertheless, the bulk of UNICEF’s time, energy and human resources are devoted to long-term development issues. This poses an interesting challenge for the organisation: how to maintain the humanitarian knowledge, skills and decision-making ability of all staff members during the long, non-crisis periods?

The 2nd GRF One Health Summit Davos 2013 “One Health, One Planet, One Future”, organized by the Global Risk Forum GRF Davos under the patronage of OIE and FAO from 17 – 20 November 2013 in Davos, Switzerland has brought some 350 people from 65 countries together, addressing the current status and further evolution of the One Health approach.

Christian Aid, the fourth largest British development/humanitarian NGO, has developed an approach to supporting resilience which it calls the ‘thriving resilient livelihoods’ approach. Christian Aid wants to enable poor people to move beyond survival, to enjoy thriving lives. This means making a living in ways that provide adequate food, safe conditions and the resources to take new opportunities.