KATHMANDU: Nepal ranks 111th among 195 countries in the Global Health Security Index developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit in cooperation with the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security. The only countries in South Asia that are better than Nepal in health security and related capabilities are India, Bhutan and Pakistan.

2019 Global Health Security Index

Country

Rank

Index Score

India

57

46.5

Bhutan

85

40.3

Pakistan

105

35.5

Nepal

111

35.1

Bangladesh

113

35

Sri Lanka

120

33.9

Maldives

121

33.8

Afghanistan

130

32.3

*Rank out of 195 countries

Although GHSI ranking puts Nepal in the league of nations that are ‘more prepared’ to maintain health security, the country lags behind in ‘detection and reporting’ category. Nepal ranks 150th in this category with a score of 22, which is much lower than the global average of 41.9, states the GHSI, which was published in October. This implies Nepal’s laboratory systems, real-time surveillance and reporting, epidemiology workforce and data integration among human/animal/environmental health sectors are not robust.

Another area where Nepal lags behind is ‘compliance with international norms’, as per GHSI. Nepal ranks 167th among 195 countries in this category with a score of 33.5, which is lower than the global average of 48.5. This indicates Nepal needs to enhance reporting compliance, fulfil international commitments and share genetic and biological data and specimens more frequently.