Threats like ebola, SARS, bird flu and others have cost millions of lives and wiped billions from the global economy. Australia’s step-up in our region includes the establishment of the Health Security Initiative for the Indo-Pacific. Health security, for Australia, means the avoidance and containment of infectious disease threats with the potential to cause massive social and economic damage to ourselves and our neighbours.

Dr Jonathan Quick currently serves as chair of the Global Health Council and is the author of The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It. Currently speaking around Australia, from Brisbane to Melbourne, Dr Quick offers new perspectives from firsthand accounts of successes and failures in containing these diseases.

Other panel members include: 

• Ms Sharon Appleyard, First Assistant Secretary Office of Health Protection, Department of Health
• Mr Blair Exell, seconded to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet as First Assistant Secretary of Education, Community Safety and Health division
• Dr Allison Crook, QLD Chief Veterinary Officer

The event was generously sponsored by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, located in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which brings together expertise from relevant Australian government agencies to implement Australia’s Health Security Initiative for the Indo-Pacific region.