BACKGROUND PRESS CALL
BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS
ON THE GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY STRATEGY
Via Teleconference
5:33 P.M. EDT
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining us this afternoon as we talk about the Global Health Security Strategy.
I’m joined today with briefers from around the interagency. We’re joined today by [senior administration official]. We have two other briefers. A reminder: This briefing is provided on background. There is no embargo, so you can use the material as it comes out.
And you may notice that there’s already a factsheet that is posted about the Strategy that is coming out. And the Strategy itself should post momentarily.
Right, this is on background. And, with that, we’ll go ahead and start. And I’ll turn it over to my colleague.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, thank you. I’ll just provide a few topline notes here. We’ve got a team of interagency experts on this topic to help explain what the President is rolling out today and to help answer any questions.
So our National Security Strategy specifically identifies combatting biological threats and pandemics as a cornerstone of national security. Biological threats, like infectious disease outbreaks, are a national security priority for the United States government.
And you may recall that, last year, the President rolled out the National Biodefense Strategy. We have been actively implementing that strategy. This was a presidential priority, and continues to be. And I think it’s part and parcel of a total national security enterprise focus on biological threats and global health challenges.
The United States, in close cooperation with its international partners, will work to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious diseases threats at home and abroad, whether naturally occurring, unintentional, or deliberate.
The Global Health Security Strategy released today outlines a coordinated United States government approach that focuses on three interrelated goals: strengthen partner country global health security capacities, increase international support for global health security, and a homeland prepared and resilient against global health threats.
The approach that we lay out here today in the GHSS will ensure that we maximize impact through collective global action and create a safer world by closing the gap that diseases exploit. The Strategy’s activities will be multisectoral, leveraging the strengths of numerous United States departments and agencies, and will reflect the contributions of a broad set of health security-related programs and funding streams across the United States government.
Now, since its launch in 2014, for example, we’ve also been focusing on the Global Health Security Agenda. And this -- this itself is something that we are using to make significant progress towards stronger country-level health security capacity.
So if you take a look at what we’ve been doing with the National Biodefense Strategy, you take a look at what we’ve doing with the Global Health Security Agenda, and you take a look at what we’re doing today with the Global Health Security Strategy, I think what you see is a fairly cohesive, integrated, and systematic focus on the challenges posed by biological threats, biological security, and global health challenges.
And so, with that, what I’d like to do is I’d like to turn it over to my colleague with CDC to provide that agency’s views on (inaudible).
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: And real quick, just wanted to reinforce that this is on background. Attribution is “senior administration official.” Just want to clarify that.
Over to you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Okay, thank you very much. This is [senior administration official] at CDC. CDC’s primary mission is to protect the health, safety, and security of the American people. And in order to do that effectively, we work globally to ensure that health threats do not reach U.S. borders.
I want to talk a little bit about our approach, especially through the Global Health Security Strategy. From domestic preparedness and responding to the measles outbreaks in the U.S., to responding to the challenging Ebola response in DRC, CDC plays a unique role in global health security, and will continue this work as described in the Global Health Security Strategy.
CDC is engaged in all three goals outlined in the Global Health Security Strategy: strengthening partner-country capacities, increasing international support for global health security, and a homeland prepared for and resilient against global health threats.
While CDC has expertise in and conducts activities across all 16 technical areas that are outlined in this Strategy, our global health security work focuses on the core foundation for strong public health systems, surveillance, laboratory workforce, and emergency operations, which are some of the key technical areas in this strategy.
For example, we work in antimicrobial resistance by improving laboratory capacity and surveillance for drug-resistant pathogens. We also work on zoonotic diseases by including veterinarians and animal health workers in our workforce development programs, and by improving detection and response to zoonotic pathogens through laboratory surveillance and emergency management activities.
These are some of the core functions that we focus on as the U.S. public health agency when we work very closely with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments and organizations to help them build their capacities.
CDC has world-class scientists and public health professionals who implement key disease detection activities and train the public health workforce for the future, diagnose novel and reemerging pathogens with our world-class labs and deploy laboratory assets to the field where our innovative technology can yield high-quality results even in resource-constrained environments.
And another important component of our global health security work is the agency’s ability to monitor threat -- monitor threats globally from headquarters and provide rapid response through deployment of staff across the agency.
And we’ve developed a system -- the Global Emergency Alert and Response Service -- to do that. We monitor between, on average, 35 to 45 outbreaks a day through event-based surveillance, and support emergency deployments to respond to these outbreaks or public health events, such as natural disasters or displaced populations due to conflict or strife.
CDC has rostered over 500 deployers that have provided nearly 17,000 person days of support for response activities. And this includes staff who have deployed to Democratic Republic of Congo, surrounding countries, and WHO headquarters to assist with the response to this Ebola outbreak in DRC now.
It’s critical for CDC is continue to help countries to develop their own global health security capacities so we can control these deadly outbreaks at their source, which protects Americans and also protects countries -- helps other countries protect their own citizens. Pardon me.
CDC’s investments in global health security, especially border health activity, will strengthen countries’ capacities to detect infectious diseases at the borders and prevent their spread to neighboring countries.
We’ve seen this in action in Uganda, during the current Ebola outbreak in DRC where several suspect Ebola cases have been detected and monitored.
So just to wrap up, global health security is national security. And it’s important to continue to make progress toward a world that’s safer and more secure from public health threats. And the Global Health Security -- this Global Health Security Strategy will assist us in doing that.
Thank you very much.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hi, good afternoon. This is [senior administration official] in the Bureau for Global Health at the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. We want to express our thanks to you for your interest in U.S. government global health security efforts.
Under the leadership of the National Security Council, we’ve worked closely with the interagency to help develop the Global Health Security Strategy. Although many departments and agencies contribute to the Global Health Security Agenda -- or GHSA -- CDC and USAID are the principal implementers of international GHSA capacity-building activities for the United States government.
Programing is designed to be complementary, responsive to country technical priorities -- as detailed in the National Action Plan for Health Security -- and builds off of each of our unique investments and experience in global health security.
USAID’s GHSA program builds upon our multisectoral development mission, especially our global health, food security, economic growth, and environmental portfolios; our longstanding work at the community level with local organizations; and our foreign disaster assistance and global resilience programs. We integrate with these programs, often using the same implementing partners, which promotes efficiency and sustainability.
In line with our agency’s focus on the journey to self-reliance and supporting increased country-level capacity and commitment, USAID builds upon our relationships with partner country ministries, including health, agriculture, finance, forestry, and our strong links with international organizations including the Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Health Organization.
We support GHSA countries in a broad range of technical areas central to improving health security in these focus countries.
One of our focal areas is addressing zoonotic diseases and animal health services. This is critical because about 70 percent of new outbreaks emanate from animals. USAID does this work by preparing the next generation of health, agricultural, and environmental professionals to deal with zoonotic diseases. We help countries detect viruses and wildlife that have the potential to cause the next epidemic or pandemic. The point is to stop these threats at their source by designing interventions, like communication materials, early on to reduce the risk to humans.
We strengthen more than 40 animal health and other national laboratories in (inaudible) countries, including reestablishing central veterinary laboratories.
USAID also has a major focus on promoting health security and services at the community level by helping countries to establish risk communication programs that provide individuals and communities with the information needed to reduce the spread of diseases and outbreaks, including safe and dignified burials when needed; helping communities at high risk of infectious disease events to develop preparedness plans; and training community volunteers to detect and respond to infectious disease threats in their own neighborhoods.
We know all of this does take place in communities. We help develop an emergency supply chain program especially designed to distribute commodities, like personal protective gear, that are critically needed during outbreaks.
Finally, USAID builds upon more than more than two decades of work addressing antimicrobial resistance by promoting stewardship in antimicrobial resistance and preventing healthcare-associated infections.
We'll continue to respond to international outbreaks in ways that build long-term capacity. For USAID, this includes through the emergency reserve funds for infectious disease outbreaks; a stockpile of emergency nonmedical commodities; on-the-ground activities that can be quickly reprogrammed; and technical experts in water, sanitation and hygiene, communication, and other areas. USAID looks forward to the next stage of GHSA implementation as outlined in the Global Health Security Strategy.
At this point, I'll ask the operator to open the line for question and answers. Thank you.
Q Good evening. This is Toby Capion calling from EWTN. Why doesn’t the U.S. confront the security challenges in Congo so it can insert more healthcare workers into the area affected by Ebola?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So, I guess I would disagree that we're not confronting them within reason. So, I'll make a couple points.
One, we have significant support for the WHO and for the U.N. UNESCO missions, which are endeavoring to provide security in the Congo. But ultimately, the security in the Congo is the responsibility of the Congolese government. They've recently elected a new President. And they -- let's be clear, they have significant security challenges on the ground. And so, within the bounds of our ability to work with the Congolese government and to support the requests of the Congolese government, we are doing literally everything we possibly can to prioritize our efforts with the outbreak of Ebola.
It is clear that this is not Ebola 2014 through 2016 in West Africa. This is a -- this is an epidemic in a region that is an unprecedented, unstable security environment that we are doing everything we can to address that, within the bounds of what is possible in that security environment.
END 5:48 P.M. EDT
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