APEC and Infectious Disease: Meeting the Challenge

Author: 
Joel Gilbourd
Description: 
Public Access Documents
Organisation: 
Abstract: 

This paper considers how the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) process, given its institutional characteristics, can contribute to the efforts undertaken by the World Health Organisation (WHO) against infectious disease (ID). By considering the history of APECs ID initiatives, this paper will show that there is sufficient interest among APECs members in using APEC as a health forum for APEC to significantly contribute to the WHOs work in this field. It will then outline the nature of the current international ID threat, what needs to be done to counteract it, and what factors impede effective countermeasures. The measures through which APEC can help the international community to overcome these impediments will then be considered. Lastly, the paper will show that these measures add value to the WHO process and do not duplicate it.