Containment of Ebola, MERS and other infectious diseases currently threatening the international community are key topics at the Biosecurity in a Globalised World conference at which leading law and global health experts will discuss the International Health Regulations at QUT - 27-28 July.
While MERS is not as lethal as ebola, both diseases are indicative of the speed with which local outbreaks can become an international concern, says Dr Sara Davies from QUT's Australian Centre for Health Law Research, which is hosting the conference at the Gardens Point Campus.
The conference's keynote speaker is Professor Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights and expert advisor to WHO's committees on WHO reform, mental health, international health regulations and pandemic influenza preparedness.
"Professor Gostin will discuss the international community's response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and suggest what future reforms are necessary to respond to such crises sooner and more effectively," Dr Davies said.
"This year is the 10th anniversary of when Australia and 195 other countries signed up to the revised International Health Regulations which set out the procedure for containing disease outbreaks and notifying the international community of these outbreaks.
"Ten years on, it is now time to review the Regulations performance and discuss how they may or may not align with emerging health priorities such as the Sustainable Development Goals (which will replace the Millennium Development Goals in September this year).
"This year there will be an international push for sustainable aid programs to assist with the development of stronger health systems in developing countries.
"WHO was criticised for being too slow to act but the big issue remains health systems having the capacity to detect and respond to outbreak events, to then notify WHO of an outbreak. The countries involved had no spare capacity in their health system to respond to this emergency."
The conference will discuss a range of key themes including medical tourism, bioethics, post conflict health care coverage, and responses to public health emergencies.
Details of the conference are here. To register for Professor Gostin's lecture click here.
Media contact: Niki Widdowson, QUT media, 07 3138 2999 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au.
