Why are organizations like the WHO necessary?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a public health international emergency situation due to an Ebola outbreak in Congo that has already caused 88 deaths out of a total of 336 probable cases. This outbreak, therefore, is much more serious than the hantavirus one that affected a cruise ship and monopolized media attention for days. And it is because it has a much higher pandemic potential, as authorities have detected that transmission is proving to be much wider than initially detected.

This outbreak has gotten out of control because it has occurred in areas of Congo with few health resources and high population mobility, people who go there to work in the mines. It is difficult not to think that when the United States administration dismantled its international aid agency, USAID, experts had already warned that one of the consequences could be this, that is, the multiplication of outbreaks due to late detection in the areas of origin.

Another of the decisions made by Donald Trump, to leave the World Health Organization at the beginning of the year, is particularly serious in a context like the current one, in which climate change and the increase in population mobility – be it for tourism, natural disasters, wars or lack of prospects – are factors that portend an increase in health crises. Viruses do not understand borders, and that is why it is necessary to have an international infrastructure dedicated to carrying out relevant surveillance and managing crisis situations. And this infrastructure is currently called the WHO.

Isolationism can never be a response to today's world. The United States may want to seal its borders, but at the same time they expect their citizens to be able to travel around the world without problems. Well, this, in a world as interconnected as the current one, is also a risk factor for Americans. In the case of the hantavirus crisis, the United States has benefited from the management carried out by the WHO without being part of it. And we have not yet heard any thanks.

The WHO is based on a fundamental principle: nowadays, healthcare is a global issue, just as trade is, for example. Far-right movements have been feeding all sorts of conspiracy theories against the WHO and vaccines for a long time, but at the same time, no one wants to give up medical advances when they are sick. And it seems incredible that after what COVID represented, there are still those who question these institutions.

The world generally needs more cooperation and more science. It also needs to become aware that an outbreak in the Congo could be the beginning of something worse if the pertinent measures are not taken. And that aid to these countries is not just an act of solidarity, but above all an act of responsibility for the health of the entire planet.