{Summary}
1 Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the urgency of ensuring that the world is prepared for the next major respiratory pathogen pandemic (1). Corresponding with World Health Assembly resolutions WHA58.5 (2) and WHA74.7 (3), WHO is committed to supporting Member States with pandemic preparedness planning through the provision of guidance and technical assistance. Following on from the PRET Global Meeting in April 2023, WHO has finalized guidance on Preparedness and resilience for emerging threats (PRET) module (1): planning for respiratory pathogen pandemics. This module acknowledges that similar systems and capacities can be used to prevent, prepare for and respond to different respiratory pathogens. The module (4) has three overarching objectives:
- to guide countries and partners in developing or updating their integrated approach to respiratory pathogen pandemic preparedness for equitable and robust response;
- to focus attention on the actions needed to strengthen respiratory pathogen pandemic preparedness functionally, in line with the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) core capacities; and
- to provide an organizing framework, pragmatic steps and an outline to structure pandemic preparedness and response planning.
A framework is needed to support and analyse respiratory pathogen pandemic preparedness globally through the lens of PRET.
The International Health Regulations (IHR) Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (5) offers several resources and tools that can be used to assess national core capacities for public health emergencies. To complement this cross-cutting framework, a framework for tracking global progress on respiratory pathogen pandemic preparedness is needed to focus on hazard-relevant capacities. Drawing on lessons from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, it is critical to routinely look at the status of the world’s functional capacities to prevent, prepare and respond to a respiratory pathogen pandemic.
Strengthening overall capacity for health emergency prevention, preparedness response and resilience (HEPR) calls for strengthening five core health emergency components, including: emergency coordination, collaborative surveillance, community protection, clinical care, and access to countermeasures (6). Accordingly, this Framework will support WHO, countries and partners in monitoring progress, identifying gaps and undertaking necessary course corrections across these five areas, helping us to better prepare for a future respiratory pathogen pandemic.
At the time of the next respiratory pathogen pandemic, a framework to monitor pandemic response actions will need to be established in line with the specific context and operational needs.
Objectives
This Framework serves as a tool to track global progress in preparing for future respiratory pathogen pandemics. Its objectives are threefold:
-- to provide a global snapshot on the status of capacities that support preparedness for respiratory pathogen pandemics; y to inform strategic actions and operational decisions for support of respiratory pathogen pandemic planning; and
-- to stimulate continuous improvement, including course corrections, in respiratory pathogen pandemic planning and preparedness strengthening.
This Framework is primarily intended to reflect preparedness at the global and regional levels, both to track progress and to identify gaps across the five capacity areas of health emergency preparedness. It is not intended to be used for inter- or intraregional comparisons, nor is it intended to be used as a comprehensive national level monitoring framework.
Target audience
This Framework is intended to be used by stakeholders involved in implementing and monitoring respiratory pathogen pandemic preparedness. At the global and regional levels, this includes and is not limited to WHO and other United Nations organizations, international and intergovernmental agencies, nongovernmental organizations, civil society organizations, philanthropic institutions, funding institutions and academia.
While the Framework is not directly intended to be a comprehensive national level tool, stakeholders at the country level may find it useful to contextualize discussions on and/or revisions to national monitoring methods. Interested parties at the country level may include ministries of health and other government agencies as well as cross-sectoral public and private partners, civil society groups, academics, and subnational stakeholders involved in preventing, preparing, and responding to pandemics.
Scope
This Framework interfaces with other preparedness and response frameworks, such as those linked to IHR 2005, to maintain coherence in global monitoring. While the IHR looks at system and capacity preparedness for all health emergencies, this Framework focuses on indicators that reflect preparedness specifically for respiratory pathogen pandemics. This Framework is not intended to comprehensively monitor all relevant technical areas, but rather to give a “snapshot” of the state of global preparedness.
The Framework is organized according to the five HEPR components, namely capacities for: emergency coordination, collaborative surveillance, community protection, clinical care, and access to countermeasures. In alignment with both the IHR 2005 and HEPR frameworks, this Framework consists of a targeted list of indicators that primarily reflect functional capacities of preparedness for respiratory pathogen pandemics.
The indicators included in the Framework have primarily been selected from pre-existing sources – as described in the chapter on methodology – to avoid duplication of efforts and to maximize the feasibility and stability of the monitoring system. The selection criteria for indicators include:
-- reflective of preparedness for respiratory pathogen pandemics;
-- representative of functional, dynamic capacities;
-- has an established data source; and
-- applicable to all WHO Member States.
While the intent is for indicators to focus on respiratory-specific elements, this was not always possible. In cases where respiratory-specific indicators were not available, broader health emergency preparedness proxy indicators have been selected to represent the capacity area. Annex 1 presents an overview of the process of indicator selection.
A few indicators identified as being under development may serve as additional facets of respiratory preparedness. Accordingly, Annex 2 captures potential global indicators that may be monitored in the future, although the data for these indicators are not currently being collected in any standardized manner.
Approach
Preparedness for respiratory pathogen pandemics will be monitored using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. These include through indicators listed in this Framework, as well as through case studies and reviews of implementation collected through a variety of forums. A synthesis of the overall state of preparedness will be summarized and made available through yearly progress reports. This Framework will be in effect from 2024 until 2030. It will be subject to revision over time according to critical needs and to incorporate new respiratory-focused indicators that fit the inclusion criteria and have an established data reporting mechanism. The approach is summarized below:
-- monitoring methods:
- indicators (quantitative)
- country examples (qualitative)
- reporting methods:
- annual progress report
- relevant dashboards
- stakeholder meetings.
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Source: ReliefWeb, https://reliefweb.int/report/world/framework-tracking-global-progress-preparedness-respiratory-pandemics
Original Document: World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240094246
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