WHO Says All Countries Underinvested In Health Systems

All countries have underinvested in their health systems, Executive Director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme Michael J. Ryan said Wednesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th May, 2020) All countries have underinvested in their health systems, Executive Director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme Michael J. Ryan said Wednesday.

"We have this perception that the public health's part of the equation is the cheap and cheerful part � and then we have the health system part, and that's the sophisticated technological part and that's what caused all the money. This is maybe one of the misconceptions. We have fundamentally underinvested in the public health architecture in all countries, north and south," Ryan told a virtual briefing.

The COVID-19 epidemic forced many countries to look for the proper public health system, the infrastructure to "quickly find cases, investigate clusters, track contacts," and it was not available, Ryan said.

"And I think we're learning a fundamental lesson that this inability to aggressively control, contain and suppress the infection has to an extent led to the need for much more stringent and broader-based public health and social measures and lockdowns," he added.

More than 5.5 million coronavirus cases have been registered across the world. However, a number of countries in Europe at this point are reporting decrease in infections and are preparing to ease restrictions introduced to stem the spread of the virus.