A card that can save your life

You can learn a lot just by looking at the map. And a world map prepared by a new public health organization can save many lives the next time an epidemic threatens to cross borders and oceans, writes Share America.

Фото: Depositphotos

On the PreventEpidemics Company Card color-coded green, yellow and red shows countries that meet World Health Organization standards for preparedness for the epidemic, and those that do not meet them. By clicking on the map online, citizens, leaders and public health groups can find information and suggestions on how to fill gaps in their country's readiness.

PreventEpidemics and its map continue to follow the Global Health Security Program, which dozens of countries adopted for the first time in 2014.

Currently, 76 countries have been externally evaluated, and many others are currently being evaluated. Only nine of them received satisfactory ratings, and they are shown on the map in green: Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Finland, Oman, Slovenia, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America.

Photo: preventepidemics.org

But even they have room for improvement, says Thomas Frieden, former director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who heads the leading organization Resolving to Save Lives initiative, which began in September 2017, thanks to funding of 225 million dollars from the charity Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Since the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa in 2014 began, “the world has made tremendous progress in assessing gaps in the prevention of epidemics, but it has not made enough progress in eliminating the deficiencies found,” Frieden said at the Aspen Festival of Ideas.

External evaluations, which are voluntary, produce arrays of data in the form of diagrams and spreadsheets. The map “clarifies” the assessments and speaks in simple language what countries should work on, says Amanda McClelland, senior vice president of Prevent Epidemics.

15 countries shown in red scored less than 40 on a 100-scale and were considered not ready. 41 country, in yellow, scored from 40 to 79 points, and nine scored 80 or more points. Most countries marked yellow are in Africa and Asia, and some are close to achieving green status, McClelland notes. (11 from other countries were also evaluated, but their ratings have not yet been made public.) The map and its underlying information are intended to show people the most promising ways to achieve green status.

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