IDSA Urges Strengthened AMR, Immunization Efforts Ahead of Global Health Security Agenda Meeting

In preparation for the Ministerial Meeting on the Global Health Security Agenda next month, IDSA sent this letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, recommending that the U.S. strengthen GHSA activities on antimicrobial resistance, immunization, workforce, and medical countermeasures. During the meeting, GHSA partners will solidify the framework guiding the next five years of the initiative aimed at strengthening countries’ abilities to detect, prevent and respond to global infectious disease threats.

The GHSA is a partnership of 64 countries and international organizations aimed at building up health systems – especially in resource limited settings – to effectively respond to infectious diseases threats, from strengthening laboratory and surveillance systems, to training field epidemiologists, to addressing the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance. Established just before the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, the GHSA has since responded to outbreaks of anthrax in Guinea, Ebola in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and avian influenza in Uganda, among others.