Saturday 27 / April / 2024
Islamabad: Public health is the foundation of social, economic and political stability, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom said in the media briefing on COVID-19 held on 7th September 2020.
Adhanom remarked, "That means investing in population-based services for preventing, detecting and responding to disease."
"This will not be the last pandemic. History teaches us that outbreaks and pandemics are a fact of life. But when the next pandemic comes, the world must be ready – more ready than it was this time."
He mentioned countries including Thailand, Cambodia, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Senegal, Italy, Spain and Vietnam for their efforts in dealing with the pandemic.
“Many of these countries have done well because they learned lessons from previous outbreaks of SARS, MERS, measles, polio, Ebola, flu and other diseases,” continued Adhanom.
"That’s why it’s vital that we all learn the lessons this pandemic is teaching us," the WHO Director-General said.
He also commented on investing in public health and said that in recent years, many countries have made enormous advances in medicine, but too many have neglected their basic public health systems, which are the foundation for responding to infectious disease outbreaks.
"Part of every country’s commitment to building back better must therefore be to invest in public health, as an investment in a healthier and safer future," Adhanom said.
