Search for the Optimal Model of Institutional Capacity to Counteract Infectious Threats in the Modern World

Abstract

Epidemiological surveillance of public health is an important tool for protection against viral and infectious diseases, both at the national and international levels. Its key role is played by such components as prevention, sanitary protection, compulsory vaccination, audit of the epidemic situation, special anti-epidemic measures, etc. Their implementation requires a systematic approach, which can only be ensured by professional, balanced, and scientifically sound public administration in the field of public health, including on the international scale. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a number of issues related to public administration in healthcare and epidemiological surveillance. In this article, the authors analyse the world experience of building systems that ensure sanitary and epidemiological well-being, and try to assess its impact on the effectiveness of counteracting epidemiological threats. In the course of the study, the authors investigated the structure of the system of anti-epidemic and sanitary bodies of more than forty countries of the world. The authors have left out countries with a small population (because they are characterised by universalisation, multifunctionality of public administration entities) and countries whose statistics on the spread of COVID-19 are questionable. For others, it was possible to identify three main approaches to building a system of sanitary and anti-epidemic bodies and to propose appropriate models of the institutional mechanism of public administration in the field of epidemiological well-being.