March 2020 | COVER STORY
  Infectious diseases know no borders. So says the first Global Health Security (GHS) Index, a benchmarking assessment of health security and related capabilities across 195 countries, released in October 2019. The GHS Index produced alarming results—in measuring countries’ abilities to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats, the average global score was a mere 40.2 out of 100.
   The risks inherent in high-consequence and globally catastrophic biological events have recently been magnified by a rapidly changing and interconnected world; increasing political instability; urbanization; and climate change, among other factors.