In it's annual report, the WHO governments can prevent the outbreaks by preparing themselves and cooperating instead of trying to close borders and isolate themselves.
One or more new infectious illnesses have been detected each year since 1970, and many diseases are able to withstand modern medicine. With 2.1 billion people a year traveling by air, diseases can spread rapidly. Manmade disasters such as nuclear accidents or terrorism must also be monitored globally, the agency said. The report says countries should share data to develop vaccines or treatments and alert health agencies to outbreaks.
"International public health security is both a collective aspiration and a mutual responsibility,'' Margaret Chan, director-general of the United Nations agency, said in the report. "The new watchwords are diplomacy, cooperation, transparency and preparedness.''
In an example of the wrong type of behavior, the WHO said Indonesia, where bird flu has killed the most people, has yet to resume the sharing of avian influenza samples with researchers.
Indonesia began withholding samples of the avian flu virus in December to demand access to affordable drugs for Asia, where four-fifths of human cases of the disease have occurred. Doctors can't produce up-to-date vaccines without the latest H5N1 samples. While Indonesia did provide three specimens in May, the samples didn't contain the living virus, WHO officials said.
