Strengthening global health security by embedding the International Health Regulations requirements into national health systems

Kluge, Hans; Martín-Moreno, Jose Maria; Emiroglu, Nedret; Rodier, Guenael; Kelley, Edward; Vujnovic, Melitta; Permanand, Govin

Another crucial issue for emergency preparedness and response is human resources for health-in terms of numbers and availability, relevant expertise and training and deployment. For IHR (2005) purposes, there is a raft of profiles required from the health workforce. This includes epidemiologists, clinicians, public health specialists, laboratory personnel, health information experts and biostatisticians, risk communication professionals, sociologists and anthropologists, as well as doctors, nurses and veterinarians. Close collaboration with the health system can help to understand the optimal size, skill-mix and distribution of the health workforce required, and can help in the design of appropriate training curricula. For instance, given the centrality of laboratory systems and services to the IHR (2005), designing field epidemiology and laboratory training programmes for staff are essential, as is linking them to the health system.