Fortunately, control programmes are already long-established and widely-applied for some known epidemic diseases, such as cholera, HIV infection, influenza, meningitis, malaria, tuberculosis and yellow fever. However, even if medical countermeasures are available, these diseases remain a threat for many of the world’s populations, either because of their rapidly evolving nature (e.g. influenza) or because equitable access to effective public health measures is difficult. There are many reasons for limited access to vaccines: production capacity does not meet the demand (e.g. yellow fever, pandemic influenza), explosive outbreaks exhaust the available vaccines (e.g. meningitis), or the absence of markets prevents access to the intervention in case of emergencies (e.g. oral cholera vaccine). In addition, in many affected countries, the weakness of the existing health care system prevents effective access to medical interventions (diagnostics and treatment). Therefore, although it is reassuring that sound knowledge and a range of potential control interventions are available, expert guidance must be constantly updated to incorporate scientific and technological progress. Equally important, access to life-saving interventions must be improved in all settings worldwide. The current global strategy is to reach elimination or eradication of these diseases through vaccination or investment in and implementation of other countermeasures.
Source : WHO