Tweet
Hat Tip: NawtyBits, PFI
Interview: Margaret Chan , From 'Financial Times'
As she was dashing to catch a late evening connecting flight from New York to Washington DC on April 23 to participate in World Malaria Day, Margaret Chan noticed a missed call from one of her top aides whom she knew she should call back immediately.
Keiji Fukuda, an assistant director general at the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organisation (WHO), had news of what could prove an even more lethal killer. He warned her that he was expecting test results on a new virus that was worrying public health specialists in North America.
?I always tell my staff to bring something to my attention if there is a worry,? she recalls. ?I said activate the SHOC room for 24/7 operation and mobilise people. I?ll be on call.?
She was referring to the Strategic Health Operations Centre, the nerve centre for monitoring disease outbreaks that Ms Chan herself set up after her arrival at the WHO in 2004 from Hong Kong, where as director of health she had had experience tackling both SARS and H5N1 avian flu. At WHO, she was then elected director-general in 2006.
In the past eight days, she has twice raised the WHO?s alert level, from 3 to an unprecedented 5, meaning a pandemic is deemed imminent. That has focused international attention, while triggering sceptics to talk of crying wolf as very provisional data suggest deaths in Mexico may not be as high as first thought.
?There was a lot of anxiety and nervousness,? she acknowledges. ?That is understandable. All governments are concerned and taking it extremely seriously. It?s a tough call. Given this type of information, can you imagine if I didn?t heighten awareness of public health officials around the world, and 3 or 4 days later it hit??
She acknowledges that detailed data have been slow to emerge. ?I have to be fair. These countries are so overwhelmed. Other countries may expect a lot of information now. But people need to allow time for the epidemiology, laboratory and clinical data. Without it, it is very difficult to appreciate the characteristics of the disease. Information is beginning to roll in and we?ll be sharing it as and when it is verified.?
She warns that an apparent decline in mortality rates outside and within Mexico does not mean the pandemic is coming to an end. ?If it?s going to happen, it would be the biggest of all outbreaks the world has faced in the twenty-first century. We hope the virus fizzles out, because if it doesn?t we are heading for a big outbreak.?
As signs grow of divergent policies adopted by countries in response to the flu, Ms Chan has twice reiterated the WHO?s own advice - ?grounded on the evidence and science available to us? - that travel restrictions serve no purpose in preventing the spread of infection, while causing unnecessary disruption.
Mobilised by the WHO?s aggressive action to advise against travel to Canada during the SARS outbreak in 2003, countries voted for the International Health Regulations which came into effect in 2007 to define future behaviour.
She says the regulations allow countries to take measures not recommended by the WHO in line with their own national rules, citing airport screening and quarantine as acceptable, for instance.
Yet she cautions that future measures which contradict the science will need to be justified. ?I would not come out to blame and shame - that is not my style or duty. But that would not stop me talking, explaining, criticising,? even publicly if necessary, she says.
So would she herself take a flight to Mexico now? ?Absolutely. But if the authorities said they wanted to screen me on arrival, that would be fine.?
Interview: Margaret Chan , From 'Financial Times'
As she was dashing to catch a late evening connecting flight from New York to Washington DC on April 23 to participate in World Malaria Day, Margaret Chan noticed a missed call from one of her top aides whom she knew she should call back immediately.
Keiji Fukuda, an assistant director general at the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organisation (WHO), had news of what could prove an even more lethal killer. He warned her that he was expecting test results on a new virus that was worrying public health specialists in North America.
?I always tell my staff to bring something to my attention if there is a worry,? she recalls. ?I said activate the SHOC room for 24/7 operation and mobilise people. I?ll be on call.?
She was referring to the Strategic Health Operations Centre, the nerve centre for monitoring disease outbreaks that Ms Chan herself set up after her arrival at the WHO in 2004 from Hong Kong, where as director of health she had had experience tackling both SARS and H5N1 avian flu. At WHO, she was then elected director-general in 2006.
In the past eight days, she has twice raised the WHO?s alert level, from 3 to an unprecedented 5, meaning a pandemic is deemed imminent. That has focused international attention, while triggering sceptics to talk of crying wolf as very provisional data suggest deaths in Mexico may not be as high as first thought.
?There was a lot of anxiety and nervousness,? she acknowledges. ?That is understandable. All governments are concerned and taking it extremely seriously. It?s a tough call. Given this type of information, can you imagine if I didn?t heighten awareness of public health officials around the world, and 3 or 4 days later it hit??
She acknowledges that detailed data have been slow to emerge. ?I have to be fair. These countries are so overwhelmed. Other countries may expect a lot of information now. But people need to allow time for the epidemiology, laboratory and clinical data. Without it, it is very difficult to appreciate the characteristics of the disease. Information is beginning to roll in and we?ll be sharing it as and when it is verified.?
She warns that an apparent decline in mortality rates outside and within Mexico does not mean the pandemic is coming to an end. ?If it?s going to happen, it would be the biggest of all outbreaks the world has faced in the twenty-first century. We hope the virus fizzles out, because if it doesn?t we are heading for a big outbreak.?
As signs grow of divergent policies adopted by countries in response to the flu, Ms Chan has twice reiterated the WHO?s own advice - ?grounded on the evidence and science available to us? - that travel restrictions serve no purpose in preventing the spread of infection, while causing unnecessary disruption.
Mobilised by the WHO?s aggressive action to advise against travel to Canada during the SARS outbreak in 2003, countries voted for the International Health Regulations which came into effect in 2007 to define future behaviour.
She says the regulations allow countries to take measures not recommended by the WHO in line with their own national rules, citing airport screening and quarantine as acceptable, for instance.
Yet she cautions that future measures which contradict the science will need to be justified. ?I would not come out to blame and shame - that is not my style or duty. But that would not stop me talking, explaining, criticising,? even publicly if necessary, she says.
So would she herself take a flight to Mexico now? ?Absolutely. But if the authorities said they wanted to screen me on arrival, that would be fine.?