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The value proposition of the Global Health Security Index

Attachments

Sanjana J Ravi, Kelsey Lane Warmbrod, Lucia Mullen, Diane Meyer, Elizabeth Cameron, Jessica Bell, Priya Bapat, Michael Paterra, Catherine Machalaba, Indira Nath, Lawrence O Gostin6, Wilmot James, Dylan George, Simo Nikkari, Ernesto Gozzer, Oyewale Tomori Issa Makumbi, Jennifer B Nuzzo

Summary box

  • Infectious disease outbreaks pose major threats to human health and economies.

  • The Global Health Security Index (GHS Index) can help decision makers identify weaknesses in systems for preventing, detecting and responding to outbreaks, while also considering relevant social, political and environmental risk factors.

  • Using publicly available information, the GHS Index documents where health security capacities are strong and where they are weak.

  • GHS Index scores and ranks are entry points into deeper analyses of health system capacities and performance.

  • GHS Index scores cannot and do not predict how countries respond to outbreaks, nor how many cases or deaths a country will report during an outbreak.

  • Future iterations of the GHS Index will incorporate lessons learnt from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Infectious disease outbreaks pose major threats to human health and security. Countries with robust capacities for preventing, detecting and responding to outbreaks can avert many of the social, political, economic and health system costs of such crises. The Global Health Security Index (GHS Index)—the first comprehensive assessment and benchmarking of health security and related capabilities across 195 countries—recently found that no country is sufficiently prepared for epidemics or pandemics. The GHS Index can help health security stakeholders identify areas of weakness, as well as opportunities to collaborate across sectors, collectively strengthen health systems and achieve shared public health goals. Some scholars have recently offered constructive critiques of the GHS Index’s approach to scoring and ranking countries; its weighting of select indicators; its emphasis on transparency; its focus on biosecurity and biosafety capacities; and divergence between select country scores and corresponding COVID-19-associated caseloads, morbidity, and mortality. Here, we (1) describe the practical value of the GHS Index; (2) present potential use cases to help policymakers and practitioners maximise the utility of the tool; (3) discuss the importance of scoring and ranking; (4) describe the robust methodology underpinning country scores and ranks; (5) highlight the GHS Index’s emphasis on transparency and (6) articulate caveats for users wishing to use GHS Index data in health security research, policymaking and practice.