Global Health Security Index 2021

The Global Security Index is prepared by the John Hopkins Center for Health Security, Economic Intelligence Unit and the Nuclear Threat Initiative. The index says that the world is unprepared for future pandemics.

What are the key findings?

• The over performance of the Global Health Security Index decreased from 40.2 in 2019 to 38.9 in 2021.
• The infectious diseases will also have great impact on global economy in the coming decades.
• None of the participating countries scored above 75.9. And none of the countries scored top in the ranking. All the countries have insufficient health capacities. This has made the world highly vulnerable to future pandemics.
• 65% of the countries do not have a public health emergency response plan for endemic or pandemic.
• 73% of the countries do not have the potential to provide approval for medical counter measures such as anti-viral drugs, vaccines.
• The developed countries lag dedicated financial investments in strengthening pandemic or endemic preparedness.
• 79% of the countries did not allocate national funds in the last two to three years to address the epidemic threats
• 90 countries did not fulfil their complete financial organisation to the World Health Organisation. 14 of these are developed countries
• 82% of the countries had low to moderate levels of public confidence in their government

What did the index say about India?

• India ranked 101 among 116 countries. It scored 27.5. However, the government of India responded that the report is unscientific.
• According to the report, the child wasting in India increased from 17.1% between 1998 and 2002 to 17.3% in 2020.
• India trailed behind Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh in the index.
• India showed improvement in under – 5 mortality rate, prevalence of undernourishment, prevalence of stunting among children.

About the Index

The Index is calculated based on four indicators. They are Child stunting, undernourishment, child mortality and child wasting. The top rank holders in the index were China, Brazil and Kuwait.