‘A new understanding for pandemic and epidemic risks’
The WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence was officially inaugurated on the 1st September 2021 by H.E. German Federal Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization Director-General in Berlin. This excellent initiative was contributed to by PANDEM-2 project partners and the German federal government agency responsible for disease control and prevention, Robert Koch Institute.
The Hub has received a starting investment of $100 million from the Federal Republic of Germany and is part of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme. The aim of the Hub is to better address pandemic and epidemic risks by strengthening intelligence and striving for better data, better analytics, and better decisions. Based in Berlin but with a global reach, the Hub will connect local and global initiatives and foster a collaborative environment for innovators from a wide spectrum of disciplines, allowing it to leverage the best technology and centre its work in the needs of stakeholders around the world.
Dr. Tedros said:
“The world needs to be able to detect new events with pandemic potential and to monitor disease control measures on a real-time basis to create effective pandemic and epidemic risk management. This Hub will be key to that effort, leveraging innovations in data science for public health surveillance and response, and creating systems whereby we can share and expand expertise in this area globally.”
This valuable innovation will provide key actionable data; develop state-of-the-art analytic tools and predictive models for risk analysis; and link communities of practice around the world. Critically, the WHO Hub will support the work of public health experts and policy-makers in all countries with the tools needed to forecast, detect and assess epidemic and pandemic risks so they can make rapid decisions to prevent and respond to future public health emergencies.
You can view the website here.