GENEVA: The World Health Organization begins its annual meeting on Monday, where government ministers and other top envoys are expected to consolidate steps taken to improve the healthcare sector. Global Preparedness to the devastating consequences of the next pandemic COVID-19But the most ambitious project, adopting a pandemic “treaty,” has been put on hold for now after 2 1/2 years of work failed to produce a draft on which countries could agree by Friday, as originally hoped.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted it was not a “failure” and World Health Assembly The way forward can also be decided this week.

When diplomats, health officials and activists were still trying to draft the treaty, they predicted the conference could be one of the most important in the WHO’s 76-year history. But that is no longer the case.

World Health Organization officials and others are eager to escalate the anxiety generated by the coronavirus pandemic, because the danger is that the more this pandemic fades into history, the less the public and policymakers will be interested in preparing for future pandemics.

The basic premise is that pathogens that do not respect national boundaries require a united response from all countries. But decision-makers have struggled to balance national interest with calls from WHO officials to think more broadly in the interest of humanity and equity.

So now health ministers must take up the task and try to bridge deep differences, including over how the world can share information about emerging pathogens and scarce resources like vaccines and masks when demand soars.

The meeting of the UN health agency’s 194 member states will begin on Monday with speeches by Tedros and video comments from high-profile participants, including International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The envoys will discuss global health concerns, including the consequences of wars in places such as the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine.

instead of a Pandemic TreatyThe best way to strengthen the international health framework to fight such cross-border outbreaks is now to amend the nearly two-decade-old law. International Health RegulationsTedros said last week that these countries had agreed “in principle”.

These regulations focus on helping countries detect and respond to health emergencies.

For example, the Assembly’s rapporteur may establish the concept of “Pandemic emergency”Further refining the cumbersome category of public health emergency of international concern, which is currently the World Health Organisation’s highest level of alert for dangerous epidemics.

Such a term could help inform the public at a time when confusion and uncertainty, like with COVID-19, are widespread. (AP)