One Interconnected World That Needs Protection

We live in an interconnected world, particularly when it comes to disease and public health threats. Disease knows no borders—what happens in one country can affect us all.

That is why today the United States, through the work of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other parts of the Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Departments of Defense, Agriculture and State, joined with more than a few dozen partner countries and international organizations to launch the Global Health Security Agenda. This effort is designed to accelerate progress to protect our world from health threats.

CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden provides insights into this new agenda in a CNN blog and in a more detailed perspective in The Atlantic. In his CNN blog, Dr. Frieden highlights five ways diseases in other countries can kill you:

• The flu could threaten millions 
• Antibiotic resistance is on the rise 
• Diseases don’t respect borders 
• “Foreign” diseases are now domestic threats, and 
• Emerging infections could lead to global outbreaks 

These are just a few reasons why even greater collaboration and coordination are needed. I hope you will take the opportunity to learn more about this vital initiative, one that is essential to the health and security of us all—around the world and here at home in the United States.

Photo from CDC: 2012 investigation of Ebola virus in Uganda