World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world is not sufficiently prepared for pandemics and called on heads of state to agree on concrete actions. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
The WHO chief recalled that this week world leaders will gather at the UN General Assembly in New York to reaffirm their commitments on preventing pandemics, preparedness and response measures.
"The political declaration clearly states that the world is still not sufficiently prepared for pandemics," he said in a video address published on social media.
According to Ghebreyesus, concrete, urgent measures with visible results are needed to respond to this challenge.
"This means increasing and strengthening capacity at local and national levels, epidemiological surveillance, laboratories, early warning systems, as well as strengthening infection prevention and infection control measures," he said.
As the organization's director-general noted, leaders need to complete work on developing an annex to the pandemic agreement on access to pathogens and the sharing of benefits derived from them.