Professor Sharon Lewin

So WHO, the US government contributed to about 10% of the budget of the WHO, and that has ended.

and therefore that weakens that organisation.

They are, of course, doing things currently in Democratic Republic Congo, but it would be at a reduced level with a reduced budget.

At the same time, what is the most important thing for strengthening health systems is to have that capability on the ground, ready to mobilise when the time comes.

And so countries like DRC, Uganda and others in Central Africa have lost significant capability through the

end of USAID.

So USAID was the US government's arm to international development.

There was many, many people located in those countries.

They may have been working on other aspects of infectious diseases, particularly HIV, but they have the capability and tools to rapidly move from what they might be working on to a new outbreak.

And that capability has really been eroded since the ending of USAID.

Yeah, look, I think Australia has, of course, a very, very good public health system and it's been strengthened with the addition of the Centre for Disease Control, the Australian CDC, that opened on the 1st of January 2026.

And with the goal to provide far enhanced coordination of our response to initially infectious diseases, communicable diseases, and eventually they will move on to non-communicable diseases.

At the same time, there's been other investments such as in mRNA manufacturing capabilities in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

There's been investment in the science through initiatives like the coming global centre for pandemic therapeutics based here at the Doherty Institute

week.

But that is all happening, what's happening in our borders.

And this is actually a global challenge, not an individual country challenge.

So sure, every country has to be prepared, and we are prepared to diagnose the first case of Ebola.

In fact, we had a query case just last week of a gentleman who had been in Uganda, and the alarm bells were rapidly raised, the testing was done, it was proved the person did not have Ebola, but we do have that capability.

But we need to do more than that because we're surrounded by countries that have far weaker health systems.