VN May 2023

Vetnuus | May 2023 2 Last month I dwelled a bit on personal integrity, but integrity goes beyond personal actions. Integrity touches every aspect of life. During April, I had the privilege of representing the World Veterinary Association during the World Health Organisation's Intergovernmental Negotiation Burea on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response. They attempt to negotiate an International Treaty for Pandemic, Prevention and Response to which all member states must comply. They interrogated the lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic and the traits of a possible future pandemic using Avian Influenza as an example, touching closely on veterinary medicine. Efforts are being made to understand the epidemiology properly of organisms that could lead to a pandemic, but more importantly, what actions should be taken to prevent, prepare and respond to a pandemic. A lot of these actions are well-known, but capacity is lacking. In the discussion on health capacity building, a lively discussion was held on sharing capabilities between developed and under- developed countries and human and animal medicine (One Health in action). It was interesting how different countries suddenly put the issue of managing a pandemic on the back burner to protect their rights at the disposal of others that might suffer. The debate became even more heated, discussing the rights of humans and animals to health, even in the face of food safety and security. But managing an international disaster reaches far beyond the clinical aspects, such as disease surveillance, diagnostics, vaccination and control measures. Let's look into just only one aspect and the wider implications. Vaccine research and production are a given for most infectious diseases. If the treaty is looking to establish vaccine centres, the following are some of the issues to be addressed: • Who is going to establish the capacity? • Where will they be located? • How will countries have access to the intellectual property to produce vaccines? • Intellectual property rights. • Trademark rights. • Where is the material for production going to be sourced from? • What are the trade restrictions? • How long will vaccine registration take in the various countries? • How will transport and transport restrictions impact distribution? A plethora of issues were discussed to address this single aspect. In these discussions, the issue at hand, managing a pandemic, suddenly took a back seat in favour of personal gain. Although intriguing and very complicated, it can be asked if the governmental representatives act with integrity. In our daily lives, most of us work in an environment where the Veterinary-Client-Patient-Relationship is paramount. Those relationships can also be very complicated, with many aspects to ponder. Let us always act with integrity, choosing our thoughts and actions on values, the health and welfare of the animal above personal gain. v Kind regards, Paul van der Merwe From the President Dear members, "Integrity is choosing your thoughts and actions based on values rather than personal gains – Chris Karcher.