27 nations announce effort to prevent disease outbreaks

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- 27 countries announced Thursday a new effort to better prevent, detect, respond to, and contain outbreaks of dangerous infectious diseases.

The representatives of the countries met in Washington, D.C. to form the Global Health Security Agenda. The purpose of the agenda is to handle outbreaks -- whether they are natural, accidental or intentional, as in the case of a biological weapon.

Some of the countries at the meeting were ground zero sites of potentially fatal contagious diseases. This includes China, where the H7N9 bird flu broke out, and Saudi Arabia, where Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) made an appearance in 2012.

[Wochit]