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John Bodden - Principal Public Health Inspector
"Basically, what we're doing, we have the gathering of all stakeholders that are involved in IHR, and basically it's to fine tune our standard operation procedures and what we're hoping to do is to actually have the interaction of those people and to streamline how we respond in terms of emergencies, specifically public health emergencies."

Alex Courtenay, 7News
"So, what areas, what sort of procedures are we looking at, to fine tune and making and ensuring that we're able to properly respond to these kinds of emergencies."

John Bodden - Principal Public Health Inspector
"There's the issue of notification. When do we notify WHO, and PAHO our local representative. The ability to detect what event is occurring within the country. And actually reporting how do we report to PAHO or WHO."

"We've done a number of assessments and the last one we did which was a joint evaluation, that concluded last July, and from that we realized that we still have significant gaps that we need to fill and as a result of that this was one of the mechanisms to strengthen our system in terms of reporting. And so, what we're hoping today is to have those stakeholders at the table to see how they can provide that input that is necessary to ensure that we have that core capacity strengthened. What we do know is that, from that evaluation, that there is still lots more that we need to do, notwithstanding we have been reporting."

Reporter
"Could you tell us what would be in WHO's probably, I guess, grading scale or something, how much more does Belize need to do to be at a level where WHO would be satisfied with the response time?"

Eldonna Boisson - Advisor, PAHO
"Okay, well first of all, in terms of WHO being satisfied we're really secondary, the WHO, it's really for Belize to be satisfied. The international health regulations is a legal agreement whereby countries agree to have certain core capacities that will allow them to be able to detect when there's a problem, to be prepared for any emerging problems, to be able to report their problems so they can share it with others who need to know, and very importantly to be able to respond adequately so that the problem does not become a huge problem, but it remains small. And containable. Belize has been working in several areas to strengthen those core capacities and what we're really about here is getting the other stakeholders on board because it cannot just be Ministry of Health who deals with this, it's a national commitment to be able to do these things, and it's a national responsibility to be able to implement the international health regulations. SO, in our mind it's really important what's happening here today to have the other stakeholders around the table for them to understand their role and responsibility in these commitment that Belize has made not just to WHO, but to the country itself and to the other 196 member states of WHO."

Detection and reporting of major public health concerns is important for ensuring that the international community is prepared to contain and combat dangerous threats.