In Los Cabos, we, APEC
Leaders, "acknowledged that investing in health will
benefit economic growth", and we "instructed
Ministers to build on work underway to establish a
regional public health surveillance network and an
early warning system to monitor and respond to
critical disease outbreaks in the region, and
critical threats such as bio-terrorism." The Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak this year,
which had grave economic consequences for the region,
demonstrated the importance of prevention,
surveillance/detection, and coordinated responses to
disease outbreaks, whether naturally occurring, like
SARS, or intentionally caused, like the 2001 anthrax
incidents in the United States. APEC’s Infectious
Disease Strategy, agreed at Shanghai in October 2001,
already laid the groundwork for a commitment to
health security measures against both naturally
occurring and intentionally caused disease outbreaks.
We will work to
strengthen our public health infrastructure to
detect, respond to, and prevent bio-terrorism and
naturally occurring disease outbreaks. We will
protect our populations from dangerous pathogens, and
secure dangerous pathogens against diversion. We will
safeguard materials, equipment, technology, and
expertise applicable to biological weapons to prevent
their diversion to criminal purposes.
We commit to take
effective domestic measures to protect public health
and undertake, where appropriate, cooperative efforts
that may involve both government and non-government
institutions, working with and through international
conventions and fora, including action to:
