Abstract:
Global public health security is confronted with multiple challenges, including population growth, rapid urbanization, climate change, and the misuse of antibiotics, while the transnational spread of emerging infectious diseases has become a major global threat. Large-scale epidemics have exposed the fragility of the global public health governance system. The 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa prompted the international community to strengthen the implementation mechanisms of the International Health Regulations (2005), facilitated the establishment of regional institutions such as the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and promoted the enhancement of national public health capacities. However, the COVID-19 pandemic once again underscored deficiencies in global information sharing, coordination, and resource allocation, further reinforcing the need for governance reform. In May 2025, the 78th World Health Assembly adopted the World Health Organization Pandemic Agreement–a milestone accord designed to establish a pathogen access and benefit-sharing system, reinforce the One Health approach, enhance the resilience of global health systems, and promote the research, development, and equitable distribution of pandemic-related health products. This agreement reflects the international community′s commitment to multilateral cooperation, yet its implementation and compliance still face considerable challenges. In the future, global health security governance needs to keep strengthening multilateral collaboration and uphold WHO′s central coordinating role, increase investment in digital health technologies and public health system capacity to improve surveillance, early warning, and response mechanisms, advance cross-sectoral coordination under the One Health principle, and integrate national health security planning into broader development strategies to build a shared community of health for all humankind.