WIREDGOV

EXPERT COMMENT

New guidance from the WHO outlines how the military and health sectors can work together to be ready for future infectious disease outbreaks.

A new civil-military health collaboration framework by the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests better pandemic preparedness in the future can be achieved by establishing and maintaining collaboration across these two major sectors.

The publication of this guidance document is an acknowledgement that militaries should be incorporated into national preparedness and planning for managing major infectious disease outbreaks where appropriate, and is a marked transition from using the military reactively to seeing them as a core part of a system to prevent or limit the extent of an outbreak.

But this transition will require a significant investment by both the military and health communities in an understanding of each other’s capabilities and limitations, as well as a wider acceptance by the civilian population and civil society that this is an appropriate role for the military.

Click here to continue reading the full version of this Expert Comment on the Chatham House website.