Health Leaders Meet in Washington, D.C., for Global Health Security Initiative Ministerial

The leaders attending the Eighth Global Health Security Initiative Ministerial, on the campus of the HHS National Institutes of Health, outside of Washington, DC.

October 29, 2007 – U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Michael O. Leavitt will welcome seven Ministers and Secretaries of Health from the Americas, Europe and Asia to Washington, D.C., this week for the annual Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI) Ministerial. Convening on the campus of the HHS National Institutes of Health, the Ministers will discuss progress on their ongoing preparations for the threats posed by outbreaks of diseases of international public-health significance and terrorist attacks, including creating a global marketplace for medical countermeasures. They will also address issues of food and product safety, the sharing of influenza virus samples, and implementation of the revised International Health Regulations.

The GHSI was formed in October 2001 under the leadership of former HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. In the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent anthrax attacks, then-Secretary Thompson called for the establishment of a regular, formal opportunity for the Health Ministers of the major industrialized nations and our immediate neighbors to meet and exchange ideas.

The GHSI provides a global forum for high-level discussion around and the coordination of public-health emergency-preparedness and response policies. The overarching purpose of the GHSI is increasing preparedness among its members to address health-related threats to global security, such as nuclear, chemical, or radiological terrorist attacks, and outbreaks of infectious diseases.

The GHSI members are the Ministers of Health from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom; the Secretaries of Health from Japan, México, and the United States; the Health Commissioner of the European Union (EU); and the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).

For more information:

• Photo Gallery from the Eighth Global Health Security Initiative Ministerial
• Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI)
• Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI) Ministerial Meeting 2007 Press Conference (U.S. National Institutes of Health)
• International Health Ministers Plan for Global Preparedness (U.S. Department of State)

Last revised: November 14, 2007