Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 9, 2019 PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP IS PROTECTING THE HOMELAND AND THE WORLD FROM GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY THREATS   “We must protect the American people, the homeland, and our great American way of life.” – President Donald J. Trump PROTECTING AGAINST GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY THREATS: President Donald J. Trump is taking action to protect America and our partners from infectious disease threats. Today, the Trump Administration is releasing its Global Health Security Strategy (Strategy), the first full-fledged strategy of its kind. The Strategy defines the actions the Administration will take to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats, whether naturally occurring, accidental, or deliberate. The Strategy adopts a whole-of-government approach to health security by leveraging the strengths of many different Federal departments, agencies, and funding streams. Combating biological threats and pandemics are a cornerstone of President Donald J. Trump’s National Security Strategy. President Trump released the National Biodefense Strategy in September 2018 to prepare for and combat biological threats.  STRENGTHENING GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY CAPACITIES: The United States is working to help ensure that partner countries can respond to health security threats. The United States is working with international partners to help improve the world’s ability to stop and contain infectious disease outbreaks before they spread between countries. Under our new Strategy, the United States will work to ensure that every partner country has a plan to achieve self-reliance in the critical area of health security. The Administration strongly supports the Global Health Security Agenda as a mechanism to accelerate progress addressing infectious disease threats. Nations, international organizations, and the private sector established the Global Health Security Agenda, laying out specific targets to reduce infectious disease threats. The Global Health Security Agenda was first launched in 2014 and re-affirmed in 2018. The United States supports the use of the World Health Organization’s Joint External Evaluation process to help implement the International Health Regulations. Using this process, the United States will assist our international partners to help improve their performance in priority areas. We will encourage countries to strengthen their technical capacities and will support select partner countries in areas such as emergency preparedness and disease surveillance. INCREASING INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT: The United States is creating a safer world by utilizing collective global action to combat global health security threats. Under this Strategy, the United States will use bilateral, regional, and multilateral engagements to encourage countries to make health security a national priority. The United States will coordinate with partner governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to promote sustainable financing to build health security capacity. The United States will push for a transparent and accountable framework to encourage donors and countries to fulfill their financial commitments to global health security. By increasing international support, we will be able to enhance preparedness and response mechanisms to combat infectious diseases at home and abroad. ###