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‘The next pandemic could be around the corner’: planning for Pandemic Influenza in Tunisia
Public health experts review and update their national Pandemic Influenza Preparedness PlanPhoto: Simon van Woerden/WHO 13 August 2018 - Today, in the centennial anniversary year of the Spanish flu pandemic which killed over fifty million people in 1918, public health experts from five countries are gathering in Tunis for a three-day workshop, to...
‘So not one outbreak goes unnoticed’: WHO supports influenza surveillance in Libya and Djibouti
Influenza experts from WHO and Libya’s Ministry of Health review a laboratory. (Photo: Amgad Elkholy/WHO). 22 July 2018 - During the last two weeks of June, two teams of influenza experts from WHO were deployed to Libya and Djibouti at the invitation of the countries’ Ministries of Health. The purpose was to assess and improve the influenza...
Responding to a MERS outbreak: WHO trains Rapid Response Team members in Saudi Arabia
Participants role-played different scenarios to better prepare (Photo: Amgad Elkholy, WHO) 12 July 2018 – During the first week of July, 24 public health experts gathered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to receive training on how to respond to an outbreak of deadly Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) as part of a Rapid Response Team (RRT). Since...
Regional training course organized to improve current laboratory biosafety and biosecurity practices
29 April 2018 – During the joint external evaluation (JEE) for IHR core capacity assessments in the Region, one of the critical gaps identified was absence of a laboratory biosafety and biosecurity programme with limited availability of skilled laboratory workforce for managing such programmes. Between 16 and 20 April, 2018, the WHO Regional...
Health workers trained on electronic disease early warning surveillance systems
29 March 2018 – WHO concluded a 4-day training workshop today for Somalia’s disease surveillance officers on the use of the newly updated electronic platform for disease early warning systems (EWARN), in order to improve the national capacity to detect health threats in real-time, and respond quickly to public health threats across the country....
List of Blueprint priority diseases
2018 annual review of the Blueprint list of priority diseases List of Blueprint priority diseases For the purposes of the R&D Blueprint, WHO has developed a special tool for determining which diseases and pathogens to prioritize for research and development in public health emergency contexts. This tool seeks to identify those diseases that pose a...
Emerging infectious disease outbreaks reported in the Eastern Mediterranean Region in 2017
12 February 2018 - Throughout 2017, the Eastern Mediterranean Region of WHO faced a number of emerging infectious diseases, some of these turning into explosive outbreaks. The emerging infectious diseases that have been reported in the Eastern Mediterranean Region in 2017 include: 1) acute watery diarrhoea; 2) avian influenza; 3) cholera; 4)...
Fourth EMARIS meeting launched to review progress on acute respiratory infection in the Region
12 December 2017 – The World Health Organization launched a 4-day meeting of the Eastern Mediterranean Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance (EMARIS) Network in Amman, Jordan today, to review progress made in surveillance and response capacities in regional countries for seasonal and pandemic influenza. The meeting, which runs from 11 to 14...
WHO conducts virus detection workshop to limit epidemic and pandemic influenza
Laboratory technician identifies the type of virus using WHO standard influenza kits during influenza virus identification workshop held from 31 October to 2 November in Rabat, Morocco. Photo: Greta Isac 2 November 2017 – WHO conducted a 5-day workshop in Rabat, Morocco, on influenza virus identification and handling mechanisms to enhance the...
Fourth EMARIS meeting and first scientific conference on acute respiratory infections in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
The World Health Organization’s Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean hosted the First Scientific Conference on Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs) in the Eastern Mediterranean Region in Amman, Jordan from 11 to 14 December 2017. The conference was held together with the Fourth Meeting of the Eastern Mediterranean Acute Respiratory...
