President Irfaan Ali has called for pandemic preparedness to be treated as an economic, development and security priority, saying responsibility for it cannot rest with health ministries alone.
Ali made the remarks on Tuesday during a high-level dialogue on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, according to posts on his Facebook page and that of the Office of the President.
He said countries needed to strengthen laboratories and hospitals, train personnel and put critical systems in place before an emergency occurred. “We cannot prevent every outbreak, but we can prevent an outbreak from becoming a catastrophe,” he said.
Ali also urged governments to pool investments and use technology and scientific expertise to strengthen capacity across borders and manufacture life-saving medicines closer to home.
The appeal follows work already announced in Guyana. Stabroek News reported last year that a US$22 million project, funded by a US$15 million Pandemic Fund grant and a US$7 million World Bank credit, was intended to improve the country’s ability to prevent, prepare for and respond to health emergencies.
Stabroek News has also reported on Guyana’s push for regional pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing to reduce dependence on imports, an issue that came to the fore during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tuesday’s dialogue, themed “Two Regions, One Future: Financing Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response to Build Global Health Security,” was coordinated by Guyana, the Pan American Health Organization, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and the United Nations Foundation.
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