THE NEW CHALLENGES FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN HEALTHCARE AND PUBLIC HEALTH

In the healthcare sector, the international community is currently facing two major challenges. The first one is linked to the ever-growing interactions between humans, domesticated animals and plants, wildlife and the environment at broad. This expanding interface is responsible for the selection of antimicrobial resistance and the outbreak of pandemics, and calls for a holistic response. The One Health Joint Plan of Action 2022-2026 (drawn up by the Quadripartite WHO, FAO, WOAH and UNEP) marks a new era of integrated regulation, in the awareness of the interrelation between global public health and ecosystem protection. The Plan’s first goal is to strengthen worldwide the defenses against epidemics and pandemics such as COVID-19. It is now established that the emergence of new infections is closely linked to the human invasion of natural ecosystems, leading to contacts with wild animal species harboring infectious agents that are potentially harmful to humans. Thus, WHO has decided to open negotiations with a view to
adopting a Pandemic Agreement; and the EU has adopted Regulation 2022/2371 on serious cross-border threats to health. The second challenge is linked to digital revolution and specifically to the implementation of electronic and mobile health services. E-health and m-health can play a central role in protecting health but, as highlighted in the WHO Global strategy on digital health 2020-2025, present a number of concerns (e.g., treatment and protection of health data). New technologies using artificial intelligence, finally, hold great promise for diagnosis, treatment, research and drug development, as well as for the functioning of public health; however, it is necessary to place ethics and respect for human rights at the heart of their design and use.