Health Security State of the Region 2019 in the Indo-Pacific

Abstract

Health security is here defined as the avoidance and containment of infectious disease threats with the potential to cause social and economic harms on a national, regional or global scale (1). It is a regional and global public good that provides benefit to all members of society and is central to the achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Health security goes beyond the domain of human public health: animal health is integral to health security, given that the majority of emerging diseases in humans are of animal origin (i.e. zoonoses), and transboundary animal diseases pose a threat to food security.