Sweden announces new strategy to protect against biological threats

Sweden has announced a new national strategy to protect against biological threats.

Announced on Friday 4 September, the strategy "aims to strengthen preparedness and protect life and health, livelihoods and essential societal functions" and is based on five pillars: anticipate, prevent, detect, act and recover. The Swedish government wrote that these five pillars should be used together to:  

• identify threats,
• work to prevent,
• strengthen the capacity to detect,
• create the ability to manage and limit consequences, and
• create a return to a normal state.

In the press release announcing the strategy, Sweden's minister of social affairs, Jakob Forssmed, said that the experience from COVID-19 had shown how vulnerable society can be to biological threats and underline the need to further strengthen the country's preparedness and resilience.

"The strategy describes how Sweden will build robust, flexible and cross-sectoral protection against biological threats," the press release continued. "It will strengthen national crisis management and provide a common direction for the work of anticipating, preventing, detecting and managing biological threats, as well as the possibilities for society to recover after a biological event.

"The strategy is based on a One-Health perspective where the health of humans, animals and plants, as well as the environment, are interconnected. Through strengthened collaboration between sectors and actors, Sweden will be better equipped to meet future biological threats and protect life and health, livelihoods and essential societal functions in a rapidly changing security situation."

The full national strategy can be read in Swedish, here.