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» New Panel to Advocate for a Global Public Health Convention for the 21st Century
above acceptable standards established by the World Health Organization.” According to a recent study in The Lancet, air pollution could be blamed for more than 1.6 million deaths in India during 2019.
“Some people who are chronically exposed to that pollution and then get COVID-19 most likely already have weakened immune systems,” said Kumar, who also has several relatives in India. “So, their chances of having a favorable outcome are greatly diminished.”
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Although he is grateful that the case numbers in India are starting to trickle down, Parekh is regularly in touch with Indian doctors he has trained through the Miller School’s fellowship program. He believes that the most useful things that the United States and other nations can offer India are medical support and expertise, as well as supplies, like oxygen and vaccines.
While India has vaccinated more than 100 million people, it needs a larger supply to make an impact because the population is so immense, Parekh pointed out, so ramping up vaccinations could be the most effective way to end the surge.
“There are so many unutilized vaccines around the world that could be sent there to help,” he said. “And if the world works to help India, they are helping themselves. Because this is a global crisis.”
Despite his anxiety, Pratim Biswas, dean of the College of Engineering, who specializes in aerosol science, is also looking for ways he can use his expertise to help curb the crisis in his native country. Biswas’ 90-year-old mother lives in Mumbai. In fact, a new variant of COVID-19 (called B.1.617) which many believe is fueling the current Indian outbreak, may have originated just outside of Mumbai in a smaller city called Amravati in February, news reports indicate.
Working with scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, Biswas is refining some innovative strategies to detect the novel coronavirus and designing systems to control the spread in indoor environments, along with designs for some more effective face masks. Some of his colleagues at IIT are even working on producing medical oxygen that could help ease the shortage for coronavirus patients in India and beyond. Tested successfully at the IIT, the method converts a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) nitrogen unit into PSA oxygen unit.
“While the process doesn’t produce 100 percent oxygen, like cryogenic techniques, it can generate up to 60 percent oxygen, which can be good for a patient in dire need,” said Biswas, who is building a partnership with colleagues at IIT in environmental engineering science and chemical engineering.
India’s many nitrogen-producing facilities, which take air from the atmosphere as raw material, could be potentially converted into oxygen-generating industrial plants to help ramp up the supply of medical oxygen, Biswas noted. Meanwhile, Biswas is continuing his National Institutes of Health-funded research to develop remote sensors that could be used in health care settings to detect COVID-19 aerosols. He is glad that the United States is starting to send help to India and hopes that the situation will improve.
“The United States and other countries are helping, and that’s good because this is a global pandemic,” he said. “Public health experts are on the ground in India, but they can get advice on best practices from the experts here. And we can collaborate to come up with the best solutions to prevent dramatic surges in the pandemic.”
Chatterjee is also hopeful that India will expand its vaccine distribution efforts and recover soon.
“I’m keeping my fingers crossed because things are alive and changing,” she said. “The health system, as well as the knowledge and skills, are there. We just need to get people vaccinated in a proper manner, and India did this with smallpox. So, it can do it, but it just needs proper management.”
Written by Amanda Torres Published on April 28, 2021 Category: Faculty, Initiative
A renowned public health researcher with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has formed a new global panel of public health leaders working to strengthen the world’s ability to prevent pandemics and respond to infectious disease outbreaks. The panel was officially launched on Monday, April 26, 2021.
Titled, “Panel for a Global Health Convention,” the group will work towards developing a global public health convention by bridging critical gaps in global
public health architecture and policy frameworks.
“It is an honor to act as head of the secretariat that is providing support to all panel activities for the next two years,” said José Szapocznik Ph.D., professor and chair emeritus of the Miller School’s Department of Public Health Sciences, who will serve as the secretariat of the panel. “We know what to do to avert pandemics, but there is still much work to do to mobilize the political will needed to accomplish a treaty that can move the world toward a pandemic-free future.”
Dr. Szapocznik was instrumental in forming the group of leaders in 2020.
The panel, including heads of state, would advocate for the adoption of recommendations for a new legally binding treaty or convention. This would build hope and trust in the global community by ensuring timely cooperation, transparency, accountability, and compliance with agreed-upon rules among countries—according to Dr. Szapocznik— to effectively prepare, prevent, and respond to public health outbreaks.
In addition, the panel will advocate for financial support for preparedness and response for low- and middle-income countries willing to adhere to pandemic regulations as well as sanctions for any country that places itself and the rest of the world at risk.
The Panel for a Global Health Convention will be chaired by Dame Barbara Stocking, president of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, former chief executive of Oxfam GB, and former Chair of the World Health Organization’s Ebola Interim Assessment Panel. Members will also include:
» Jane Halton, P.S.M., officer of the Order of
Australia, chair of the
Coalition for Epidemic
Preparedness Innovations, former president of the World Health
Assembly, former secretary of Australian
Department of Finance, and former secretary of
Australian Department of Health » Laura Chinchilla Miranda, M.P.P., former president of Costa Rica, and former vice president and minister of justice in the Government of
Costa Rica » Ricardo B. Leite, M.D., vice president of the
Social Democratic Party
Parliamentary Board,
National Parliament of
Portugal, and president and founder of UNITE
Global Parliamentarians
Network to End Infectious Diseases » Lawrence O. Gostin,
J.D., university professor and founding
O’Neill Chair in Global
Health Law at Georgetown University, and director of the WHO
Collaborating Center on National and Global
Health Law » Jemilah Mahmood,
M.D., FRCOG, Special
Advisor to the Prime
Minister on Public
Health, Government of
Malaysia, Former Under
Secretary General,
International Federation of Red Cross & Red
Crescent Society, Former Chief, UN World
Humanitarian Summit » Angel Gurria, secretary general of the Organization of Economic
Co-operation and
Development, will serve as an observer.
The panel’s work will also be informed by an advisory group of global experts in a diverse range of disciplines, including public health, medicine, domestic and global health policy, journalism, and economics. “The Panel for a Global Health Convention will direct its activities toward reaching heads of state and senior decision-makers across the world, with a focus on engaging relevant dialogues at the World Health Assembly, G20 and G7 summits, United Nations General Assemblies, and other multilateral forums,” said Dr. Szapocznik.
The expertise of its members will be leveraged to inform country leaders about the steps that need to be taken to achieve lasting positive change in global pandemic preparedness and response, as well as build momentum toward the adoption of the global public health convention that by ensuring cooperation, transparency, accountability, and compliance can change the future.
For more information on the panel, please email secretariat@gphcpanel.org. Follow the panel on Twitter to stay up to date.
This work is funded by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and its AHF Global Public Health Institute at UM.
