Health Emergency Information Management and Risk Assessment
Public health intelligence and epidemiological services for improved preparedness and response to health emergencies
Spotlight
WHO Health Emergency Dashboard
An interactive web-based application provides a snapshot of events and emergencies being responded to by WHO worldwide. It includes information available to the public through official websites like WHO or the Ministry of Health websites relating to public health emergencies.
Situation Analysis of National Action Plans for AMR containment
Overall, significant progress has been made in antimicrobial resistance prevention and containment initiatives related in the Region. An update on two years of implementation of national action plans on containment of AMR in each of the Member states.
Situation analysis of National Action Plans for AMR
Detection, Verification and Assessment
Surveillance & Risk Assessment
The HIM Unit serves as the IHR (2005) notification focal point public health emergencies of international concern for countries in the Region. The DVA function of HIM Unit entails public health intelligence using WHO’s Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources (EIOS), a web-based platform for event based surveillance for detection of acute public health events and disasters. Over the past year, the DVA team has screened more than 1000 signals and detected over 150 events of public health significance in SEAR.
Surveillance capacity for early detection and response to acute public health events is core capacity recognized under IHR (2005). HIM unit collaborates with other technical units and departments to provide technical support for surveillance strengthening in member states. Timely and authoritative situation analysis, risk assessments and response monitoring before, during, and after all major health threats and events, acute public health events and emergencies is a priority activity that further strengthens preparedness and response.
Publications and reports
29 September 2022
Strengthening public health surveillance and risk assessment for health security threats in the WHO South-East...
The COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to health globally and in the Region. To more effectively manage current and future epidemics, pandemics...
22 October 2021
Learning from the COVID-19 response to strengthen health security and health systems resilience in the...
Strengthening health emergency preparedness and response has been an important health priority in the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia...
19 October 2021
Lessons learned from COVID-19 pandemic: virtual regional consultation with informal expert group, 19...
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that the pre-pandemic level of preparedness was not sufficient to effectively manage such a severe health emergency. To...
Monitoring & Evaluation and Data Analysis
AMR and One Health
The HIM unit provides technical support to strategic information, which includes monitoring & evaluation (M&E) and data analysis besides supporting emergency response. The function involves technical support to IHR monitoring evaluation framework (MEF), undertaking after-action reviews (AARs), epidemiological analysis and interpretation of programmatic data, and implementing Public Health Information Services (PHIS) during complex emergencies and managing health information and monitoring of outbreaks.
Since 2016, the HIM unit is supporting the Regional Director’s Flagship on AMR. Using a One Health approach, it helps design, implement and monitor programmes, policies, and research on AMR surveillance to provide evidence and advance intersectoral collaboration between public health, animal and environment health sectors to achieve better public health outcomes.