WHO, Germany has opened a center for pandemic and epidemic intelligence in Berlin

To better prepare and protect the world from global disease threats, H.E. German Federal Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, will today inaugurate the new WHO Center for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence 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,” Dr. Tedros said. “This center will be key in this endeavor, leveraging innovation in data science to monitor and respond to public health, and creating systems through which we can share and expand expertise in this area globally.”

The WHO headquarters, which receives an initial investment of $ 100 million from the Federal Republic of Germany, will harness broad and diverse partnerships in many professional disciplines and the latest data linking technology, tools and communities of practice working data and intelligence are shared for the common good.

The center of the WHO is part of it WHO Health Emergency Program and it will be a new collaboration of countries and partners around the world, encouraging innovation to increase the availability of key data; develop state-of-the-art analytical tools and forecasting models for risk analysis; and connect communities of practice around the world. It is crucial that the WHO Center will support the work of public health professionals and policy makers in all countries with the tools needed to predict, detect and assess epidemic and pandemic risks so that they can make rapid decisions on preventing and responding to future public health emergencies. .

“Despite decades of investment, COVID-19 has uncovered major shortcomings in the world’s ability to predict, detect, assess and respond to outbreaks that threaten people around the world,” said Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Emergency Health Program. “The WHO Center for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence is designed to develop access to data, analytical tools and communities of practice to fill these gaps, promote collaboration and exchange, and protect the world from such crises in the future.”

The center will work on:

• Improve methods of accessing multiple data sources vital to generating signals and insights into the occurrence, evolution, and impact of disease;
• Develop state-of-the-art data processing, analysis and modeling tools for detection, evaluation and response;
• Provide the WHO, our Member States and partners with these tools to support better and faster decisions on how to respond to epidemic signals and events; and
• Connect and catalyze institutions and networks in developing disease outbreak solutions for the present and the future.

Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, currently the Director General of the Nigerian Center for Disease Control, has been appointed Head of the WHO. The WHO would like to thank the Nigerian Government for its support in providing strong leadership in this important initiative.

The WHO Center is currently working from the center it provides Charité – University Medicine Berlin. It will soon move to a permanent campus in central Berlin, Kreuzberg, which will provide a collaborative work environment for the Centre’s staff, representing a wide range of disciplines.

“All the work that goes into pandemic and epidemic preparedness must be done before the outbreak begins,” Dr. Tedros said. “Linking and analyzing data, and the ability to better detect and assess the risk of disease in its earliest stages before it intensifies and causes death and social disturbances, is what the WHO center will focus on. The WHO is grateful that partners like Germany and Chancellor Merkel are joining the world on this necessary path. ”