Testing, testing
1,2,3?
No, this is the key message to take away and play on repeat from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organisation, the ‘most important job in global health’.
The WHO?
The body responsible for international public health and, most significantly, the organisation co-ordinating the international response to the covid-19 pandemic across the globe. So, while we’re all on lockdown, they’re the ones handing out instructions in how to clean up the mess.
It wants countries to test everyone with symptoms and trace and isolate all their contacts rather than simply socially isolating - or risk the epidemic surging again once bans on social mixing are lifted.If we test and identify the virus’s path and spread with the same ferociousness as the virus, they say, we can get ahead of it and start to shut it down.
Thanks, won’t get fooled again. Where does Mr Ghebreyesus fit in?
He’s the man you’ve seen on your TV screen delivering bad news with the steely advice in daily press briefings: power suit, dark glasses, a shock of wiry grey hair. “To suppress and control epidemics, countries must isolate, test, treat and trace”, he said last week, pointing out that social distancing doesn’t go far enough.
"You cannot fight a fire blindfolded, and we cannot stop this pandemic if we don't know who is infected," he said, insisting that, without testing, cases cannot be isolated and the chain of infection will not be broken.
He doesn’t mince his words. What are his credentials?
As an operator, they’re glowing. An expert in the politics of public health, Adhanom definitely has a reputation for seeing the big picture when it comes to antimicrobial resistance, transforming Ethiopia’s health care system for millions as Minister for Health from 2005 to 2012.
I can see why that might be useful.
He’s essentially dedicated his life to fighting disease. Born in Eritrea, he once told The Lancet he was “fully cognisant of the needless suffering and deaths” caused by malaria as a young man - and wrote a paper connecting the presence of hydroelectric dams in the country to mosquito spawning pools. Here, partly.
He studied for a Masters in Immunology of Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and received a PhD in community health from the University of Nottingham. Having been appointed as head of a regional health bureau in Ethiopia, he was so successful at bringing down rates of Malaria, AIDS and measles outbreaks that the country appointed him State Minister for Health.
So, a straightforward path to the top job?
Hardly. He was elected as WHO Director-General for a five-year term by WHO Member States in 2017 in a particularly tense three way race at an already troubled time for the WHO, shrugging off accusations that he’d tried to hide a cholera epidemic that occurred in Ethiopia under his watch. He also beat out British candidate Dr David Nabarro, the former UN troubleshooter tasked with galvanising the world’s response to the Ebola epidemic and led the fight against cholera in Haiti, just as he did earlier against global pandemic flu.
Sorry, row back - why was it a troubled time for the WHO?
In the aftermath of Ebola, The WHO was a mess. Many wondered if it would survive after its failure to spot and close down Ebola early enough in west Africa, which led to a global crisis. All the reports written in the aftermath said that if it were to survive, the organisation needed stronger and more focused leadership in emergencies.
Significantly, Adhanom Ghebreyesus was the first director-general not a trained medical doctor by profession, and was the resounding choice for the post from African countries, vowing to expand the WHO’s donor base and focus. He warned "when you put all your eggs in one basket, that's when the problem happens"
How’s he doing now?
His reputation rests on how the world sees the WHO’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in hindsight. Testing is the only way to slow the pandemic sufficiently to give time for treatments and a vaccine to become available, he’s said. Speaking yesterday, Ghebreyesus said that the 'pandemic is accelerating'. Last week he cited South Korea, which was reporting 800 cases a day and is now down to 90. It has tested 250,000 people since the outbreak began. The UK, meanwhile, has pledged to up tests from 4,000 tests a day to 24,000. Everyone’s work is only just getting started.
