The European Commission’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) identified the potential of new pandemics, chemical and other threats as well as antimicrobial resistance as the top three categories of threats to public health that require coordination of measures at the EU level.
“This exercise is the first step in ensuring that medical countermeasures can be made available and accessible for all Member States swiftly when needed,” Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides said in a statement.
Kyriakides noted that this is the first time this analysis is being made and added that “HERA has been set up as our watchtower for future health emergencies, and I am pleased that it is now tangibly starting to deliver on this mission”.
According to HERA’s Board, the three threat categories of life-threatening or otherwise seriously harmful hazards to health which have the potential of spreading across member states are:
Pathogens with high pandemic potential.
This category concerns specific viral families of concern, taking also into account the zoonotic nature of most high consequence emerging infectious diseases. This category includes mainly respiratory RNA viral families.
Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats
These are threats that can originate from accidental or deliberate release, taking into account global geopolitical tensions, as well as incidents caused by rogue actors. CBRN substances have been identified based on their likelihood to occur and their potential impact on human health.
Threats resulting from antimicrobial resistance
HERA points out that this category includes some of the greatest risks to human health, with antibacterial resistance alone causing an annual estimate of over 1.2 million deaths globally.
The identification of the key threats to our health security launches the process to ensure the development, production capacity and scaling-up of manufacturing, procurement and potential stockpiling of medicinal products, diagnostics, medical devices, and personal protective equipment as well as other medical countermeasures to ensure their availability and accessibility in case of need.
Together with other Commission services and EU agencies, HERA will ensure that investments are continuously directed towards safeguarding public health and health security in terms of availability of medical countermeasures.
Source: Cyprus News Agency