Topic: Managing Secondary Effects of Disease Outbreaks
Country: Belgium
Delegate Name: Kelly McDonagh
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Belgium position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
The outbreak of detrimental diseases like Ebola and the Zika virus have ghastly primary effects, though the secondary effects are usually just as worse. The outbreak of disease oppresses most economies and diverse cultural communities. For example, a nation’s workforce decreases significantly which ultimately diminishes the productivity and overall income, attributed to the World Health Organization. Moreover, cultural conflicts arise due to distrust in aid workers and doctors who may be at risk of carrying the disease. Belgium realizes the problem is The United Nations must find alternative ways to control the spread of disease, for Belgium believes it is an essential part of maintaining human existence.
Belgium is highly concerned with this topic because 97% of our country is urbanized and 34% of its inhabitants live in cities with a population greater than 100,000. Containment is a major obstacle, especially for a densely populated country like Belgium. Within the past 15 years, Belgium has dealt with disease outbreaks such as the yellow fever and human influenza. At the Scientific Institute of Public Health in Belgium, experts work with other members of the EU to provide international networks of surveillance and response to infectious diseases. With this system of surveillance and response, the diseases have been somewhat manageable, though, the containment process still lacks efficiency. Belgium believes that the key to containment is through education. If we can properly educate those living in outbreak areas on how to monitor and report cases, we can reduce the spread of disease, thus managing the secondary effects that follow. Also, Belgium believes another problem lies within the health professionals. In many countries, public health programmes led by clinicians with little or no public health training are plagued by poor management and ineffective resource allocation. Additionally, we believe that a lack of education is also the reason for a lack of health professionals. For example, statistics show that about 31.2% of WHO Member States report to have less than 1 pharmaceutical personnel per 1000 population. It is evident that more instruction and guidance is necessary for careers in public health and pharmaceutical careers, especially in poverty infested areas of the world.
A disease outbreak can potentially happen at any given moment and the global community must be prepared to take action. It is essential to increase education prior to an outbreak so that we can prevent, monitor, and respond to the spread of disease. If we increase our education worldwide, we can avoid the unrelenting secondary effects that strain the economy and destroy numerous cultural communities. Belgium would like to see additional funding for education, for human lives are at risk with the current systems, or lack thereof. We are ready to collaborate with other members of the World Health Organization in order to ensure the health and wellbeing of people all around the globe.
