World Bank Head: Says global financial Pandemic Facility is needed

By Caribbean Medical News Staff
In a speech at the inaugural Global Futures Lecture at Georgetown University in Washington, the president of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim said: “it was vital that governments, aid agencies, corporations and insurance companies work together to prepare for future outbreaks. He said that in its current state; the world “dangerously unprepared” for future pandemics and lessons must be learned from the Ebola crisis in West Africa.
In addition he said that: “we need to make sure that we get to zero cases in this Ebola outbreak. At the same time, we need to prepare for future pandemics that could become far more deadly and infectious than what we have seen so far with Ebola. The Ebola outbreak has been devastating in terms of lives lost and the loss of economic growth and we must learn the lessons from the Ebola outbreak because there is no doubt we will be faced with other pandemics in the years to come.”
Mr Kim announced that the World Bank Group has a relationship with the World Health Organisation (WHO) along with other instrumental agencies and that they are working on a plan. This plan involves the development of a financial “Pandemic Facility.” He said that he expected a proposal for this to be presented to leaders of developed and developing countries in a few months.
Giving an example of how the Pandemic Facility is intended to function, he said: “this could work like insurance policies that people understand, like fire insurance. The more that you are prepared for a fire, such as having several smoke detectors in your house, the lower the premium you pay. The more that countries, multi-lateral institutions, corporations and donors work together to prepare for future pandemics – by building stronger health systems, improved surveillance and chains of supply and transportation, and fast-acting medical response teams – the lower the premium as well.”
To date Ebola has claimed the lives of some 9000 people throughout Africa and over 21,700 cases have been reported.