Posts Tagged ‘Pandemic’

H1N1 and Our Global Health Infrastructure

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

As the H1N1 pandemic continues its spread around the world, many businesses, governments, and NGOs are learning that they are ill-prepared to handle such a disease outbreak. Earlier this year on Business Casual, Smeal’s Fariborz Ghadar warned of this scenario:

Some developed countries have systems to track, identify, and quarantine outbreaks such as this, but many developing countries simply cannot do it. Compounding the problem is the fact that very few national entities talk to one another. The current infrastructure leaves much to be desired.  To manage potential pandemics, we need  global mechanisms in place beforehand to handle situations like this as they arise, not after.

In his book Global Tectonics: What Every Business Needs to Know, co-authored by Erik Peterson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Ghadar elaborates on the weaknesses in our global health infrastructure and offers some solutions:

Countries need a global health infrastructure that responds quickly and effictively to epidemics … or to terrorist-induced disease outbreaks. In this era of increased economic and social integration, an outbreak in one country can develop into a global pandemic in a matter of days. As a result, governments, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), and private companies must devise health care solutions that cross borders as effectively as the infectious agents they work to contain.

International disease control will present vast opportunities and challenges to businesses operating in afflicted countries or working to provide containment products and services. The ability of these corporations, along with governments and NGOs, to react and respond to outbreaks, and to devise solutions that meet the health care needs of the world’s population, will be critical to continued global prosperity.

More specifically, what should businesses be doing to prepare for contingencies arising from natural or deliberate epidemics and disease-related volatility? First, they need to engage in scenario-analysis in order to begin to define their reactions in the event of an epidemic. Second, they should assess the extent to which international and national institutions are prepared for such contingencies—especially because public-private sector partnership is critical to defining and implementing solutions. Finally, the growing threat of bioterrorism suggests new possibilities for the private sector to marshal its resources and technological innovation in support of new biodefenses and procedures.

Tags: Ghadar, Globalization, Pandemic, Swine Flu
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Swine Flu and Globalization

Monday, April 27th, 2009

As the number of people killed by swine flu in Mexico continues to climb, the health commissioner for the European Union has warned against non-essential travel to the United States and Mexico. Fariborz Ghadar, director of the Center for Global Business Studies at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, says pandemics such as this will continue to present formidable challenges to world leaders in an age of globalization.

It is estimated that  it took 18 years for the bubonic plague to reach the shores of Europe from its origin in China and another 30  months to reach England from Venice. A couple years ago, when SARS hit Asia, it could have reached  Canada in 72 hours. Now, swine flu from Mexico is discovered in New Zealand before anyone knows what’s going on.

Some developed countries have systems to track, identify, and quarantine outbreaks such as this, but many developing countries simply cannot do it. Compounding the problem is the fact that very few national entities talk to one another. The current infrastructure leaves much to be desired.  To manage potential pandemics, we need  global mechanisms in place beforehand to handle situations like this as they arise, not after.

Ghadar is the co-author of “Global Tectonics: Underlying Trends Shaping the Future of Business.” The book identifies the 12 trends in technology, nature, and society that will present the most formidable challenges in the next 30 years.

Tags: Ghadar, Globalization, Pandemic, Swine Flu
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