New WHO hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence opens in Berlin

In order to better prepare and protect the world against global disease threats, HE German Federal Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization, will today inaugurate the new hub of the WHO for Intelligence on Pandemics and Epidemics, based in Berlin.

“The world must be able to detect new events with pandemic potential and monitor disease control measures in real time to create effective pandemic and epidemic risk management,” said Dr Tedros. “This hub will be the key to this effort, leveraging innovations in data science for public health surveillance and response, and creating systems through which we can share and extend expertise in this area at scale. global. “

The WHO center, which receives an initial investment of US $ 100 million from the Federal Republic of Germany, will leverage broad and diverse partnerships across many professional disciplines, and the latest technologies, to link data, tools and communities of practice so that actionable data and intelligence is shared for the common good.

The WHO center is part of the WHO health emergency program and will be a new collaboration of countries and partners around the world, fostering innovations to increase the availability of key data; develop advanced analytical tools and predictive models for risk analysis; and connect communities of practice around the world. Importantly, the WHO hub will support the work of public health experts and policy makers from all countries with the tools to predict, detect and assess the risks of epidemics and pandemics so that they can make decisions. rapid response to prevent and respond to future public health emergencies.

Despite decades of investment, COVID-19 has exposed the great gaps that exist in the world’s ability to predict, detect, assess and respond to epidemics that threaten people around the world. The WHO Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence Hub is designed to develop data access, analytical tools and communities of practice to fill these gaps, promote collaboration and sharing, and protect the world against such crises in the future. “

Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Program

The Hub will work for:

• Improve methods of accessing multiple sources of vital data to generate signals and information on the emergence, course and impact of diseases;
• Develop state-of-the-art tools to process, analyze and model data for detection, evaluation and response;
• Provide WHO, our Member States and partners with these tools to support better and faster decisions on how to deal with epidemic signals and events; and
• Connect and catalyze the institutions and networks that develop solutions to epidemics for the present and the future.

Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, currently Director General of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, has been appointed to head the WHO center. WHO would like to thank the Nigerian government for its support, which provides strong leadership for this important initiative.

The WHO hub is currently operating from a center provided by Charity – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. It will soon be moving to a permanent campus in the heart of Berlin in Kreuzberg which will provide a collaborative working environment for Hub staff, who will represent a wide range of disciplines.

“All pandemic and epidemic preparedness work must take place before an epidemic begins,” said Dr Tedros. “Data linkage and analysis, along with the ability to better detect and assess the risk of disease events in their early stages before they escalate and cause death and societal disruption, are what what the WHO center will focus on. WHO is grateful to partners like Germany and the Chancellor. Merkel joins the world on this necessary path. “