Description
Following its exceptional response to the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) gained new powers to securitize infectious disease outbreaks via the revised 2005 International Health Regulations (IHRs) and the ability to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). This article investigates the declaration of a PHEIC in relation to the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic and the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak. It argues that the securitization of these outbreaks was dependent upon global surveillance networks that utilised genetic technologies to reveal the molecular characteristics and spread of the pathogen in question. In 2009, genome sequence data was used to reveal the unique and “untypable” nature of this swine flu virus. In 2014, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction tests (RT-PCR) were used to make intelligible the widespread prevalence of Ebola across the population of West Africa. This investigation sheds new light on the role of evidence in the continuum through which infectious diseases are securitized. In this case the information on the nature and spread of these pathogens provided by genetic technologies and gathered by surveillance networks played a pivotal, vital and direct role in triggering the securitization of infectious disease outbreaks.
