Regional public health intelligence  Public health intelligence refers to “a core public health function responsible for identifying, collecting, connecting, synthesizing, analyzing, assessing, interpreting and generating a wide range of information for actionable insights and disseminating these for informed and effective decision-making to protect and improve the health of the population”. WHO SEARO carries out regional event-based surveillance to detect early signals of events that my pose public health risks to the Region, aiming to provide timely alert to Member States. Applying Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources (EIOS), the team at the WHO SEARO screens a number of media articles on daily basis, triages the signals, and facilitates verification working with the national IHR focal points (IHR NFP), and WHO country offices. For substantiated events of public health importance, risk assessments are carried out. As such, regional public health intelligence work requires collaborative efforts between countries and WHO. 

IHR event communication   The International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) lays the foundation for operational communications and coordination between State Parties and WHO in the detection, assessment and management of a public health event. Effective IHR event communication, including consultation, notification, information sharing and event verification, is an important pillar to achieving the objectives of the IHR (2005) to prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease. The role of the National IHR Focal Points (IHR NFPs) in ensuring that public health risks are notified to WHO, verified when requested, and consequently responded to under the IHR (2005) is critical. WHO SEARO works with countries in the Region to strengthen capacities of IHR NFPs and effectiveness of IHR event communication.

Regional platform for sharing health emergency information  As pathogens and health hazards may easily spread to other countries across the borders, countries have expressed a need for a more effective and timely sharing of information of health security threats across countries. In consultation with countries, WHO SEARO will strengthen mechanisms to share the epidemiological information, for example, through regional epidemiological bulletins and dashboard. When required, technical briefs may be produced to support countries for risk assessment and readiness planning.

Regional network and learning for surveillance and epidemiology   Strengthening of health security systems, including surveillance systems and field epidemiology capacities, require continuous improvement through learning and innovations. Regional learning opportunities may be further fostered through various means, such as sharing of good practices and lessons, organizing regional trainings and fellowship, and supporting regional communities of practice. Optimal use of innovations and digital technology for surveillance, epidemiology, information management and public health intelligence will be facilitated.

Strengthening national systems for surveillance, risk assessment and field epidemiology

Surveillance  IHR (2005) defines surveillance as the systematic ongoing collection, collation and analysis of data for public health purposes and the timely dissemination of public health information for assessment and public health response as necessary. A surveillance system to manage health security threats should be able to provide early warning and alert, as well as timely and relevant information for risk assessment and decision-making for public health actions. The systems need to be adaptable to evolving information needs over different phases of outbreaks and health emergencies, while ensuring the efficient use of the resources. Optimizing design of surveillance systems and improving their performance are important foundations for multisource collaborative surveillance. Core surveillance functions should be further strengthened, and non-traditional surveillance approaches should be considered as appropriate.

Data analysis   In many countries in the Region, one of the priorities is to enhance basic analytical capacities of the public health workforce at the subnational and local levels. Competencies and culture of conducting basic data analysis will likely empower local workforce to more effectively guide local response and contribute to overall national response actions. More advanced analytics and visualization of surveillance data may help identify risk factors of the concerned health hazards, determinants of transmission, and characterization of health hazards. This may include rapidly analysing transmission patterns, disease severity, and impact of emerging pathogens and variants. Findings from such analyses will inform risk assessment and identification of appropriate response strategy.

Risk assessment   During health emergencies, the authorities are required to make decisions for public health response, often with a high level of uncertainty. Public health response should be mobilized in proportion to the level of risk, avoiding excessive interference on social and economic activities. Systematic risk assessment will help guide defensible decision-making and provide foundation for appropriate response measures. Risk assessment is an integral part of overall risk management of public health events, and it informs risk mitigation measures and risk communication activities.

Field epidemiology    Field epidemiology refers to the use of epidemiological tools to investigate urgent public health problems and recommend actions to control or prevent them. During the COVID-19 and other emergencies, many countries in the Region noted that there was not enough number of trained epidemiologists, especially at subnational levels. While countries in the Region are at different stages in strengthening field epidemiology workforce, there appears to be common needs and challenges, such as needs to increase number of field epidemiologists, to improve training approaches, and to enhance recognition and institutionalization of field epidemiology training programmes (FETPs). To address these challenges, national plans should be in place to guide sustainable efforts to build field epidemiology capacities.