On August 20, 2025, Professor Gilbert Burnham from Johns Hopkins University Center for Humanitarian Health in the United States gave a lecture at Kyoto University School of Public Health (KUSPH) entitled “Building Capacity in Health Security and Humanitarian Emergencies” to commemorate the opening of the Center for Health Security at Kyoto University. Professor Gilbert Burnham gave the lecture, sharing his experience of over 20 years of activities and research on health emergency management and humanitarian assistance in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, as well as the H.E.L.P program, an educational program on health emergency management and humanitarian assistance developed at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.

The lecture addressed the evolving field of health security, with particular attention to humanitarian emergencies and the role of universities in strengthening global preparedness. Prof. Burnham, drawing on decades of global experience in internal medicine, public health, and humanitarian work, emphasized that clinical expertise alone is insufficient without addressing broader public health and social determinants. Health security, once framed narrowly as disaster management, has expanded to encompass pandemics, climate change, equity, and global cooperation.

The Prof. Burnham also outlined key components: surveillance, preparedness, response, and resilience. COVID-19 underscored advances in early detection and vaccine development, but also exposed failures in communication, preparedness, and health system functionality under strain. Disasters such as tsunamis further illustrate vulnerabilities when infrastructure and supply chains fail. Climate change was highlighted as an under-addressed but urgent threat to health security.

Universities, Prof. Burnham argued, play a critical role by training professionals, generating evidence, and building technical capacity. He described the creation of the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health, which emerged from field experiences in Africa and refugee contexts. The Center’s three pillars are research, technical assistance to humanitarian organizations, and education. A flagship initiative is the “H.E.L.P” course (Health Emergencies in Large Populations), developed with international partners, which has trained thousands of practitioners globally and later expanded into online learning platforms.

Sustainability and relevance depend on long-term commitment, partnerships with local actors, and responsiveness to changing crises. Examples of impactful research included studies on dialysis quality in Syria, mortality in conflict zones such as Iraq and Yemen, and health system performance in Afghanistan. Lessons learned point to the importance of documentation, policy engagement, and interdisciplinary collaboration, including veterinary sciences for zoonotic disease prevention.

Ultimately, the lecture stressed that universities’ most enduring contribution is educating the next generation of health security leaders who can adapt to emerging threats and promote cooperation, innovation, and resilience in humanitarian crises.

We will extend further collaboration with Prof. Gilbert Burham in the context of global health security and humanitarian emergencies.