Informing the pandemic response: the role of the WHO's COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update.

On 31 December 2019, the Municipal Health Commission of Wuhan, China, reported a cluster of atypical pneumonia cases. On 5 January 2020, the WHO publicly released a Disease Outbreak News (DON) report, providing information about the pneumonia cases, implemented response interventions, and WHO's risk assessment and advice on public health and social measures. Following 9 additional DON reports and 209 daily situation reports, on 17 August 2020, WHO published the first edition of the COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update (WEU). On 1 September 2023, the 158th edition of the WEU was published on WHO's website, marking its final issue. Since then, the WEU has been replaced by comprehensive global epidemiological updates on COVID-19 released every 4 weeks. During the span of its publication, the webpage that hosts the WEU and the COVID-19 Operational Updates was accessed annually over 1.4 million times on average, with visits originating from more than 100 countries. This article provides an in-depth analysis of the WEU process, from data collection to publication, focusing on the scope, technical details, main features, underlying methods, impact and limitations. We also discuss WHO's experience in disseminating epidemiological information on the COVID-19 pandemic at the global level and provide recommendations for enhancing collaboration and information sharing to support future health emergency responses.

Disseminating information on acute public health events globally: experiences from the WHO's Disease Outbreak News.

WHO works, on a daily basis, with countries globally to detect, prepare for and respond to acute public health events. A vital component of a health response is the dissemination of accurate, reliable and authoritative information. The Disease Outbreak News (DON) reports are a key mechanism through which WHO communicates on acute public health events to the public. The decision to produce a DON report is taken on a case-by-case basis after evaluating key criteria, and the subsequent process of producing a DON report is highly standardised to ensure the robustness of information. DON reports have been published since 1996, and up to 2022 over 3000 reports have been published. Between 2018 and 2022, the most frequently published DON reports relate to Ebola virus disease, Middle East respiratory syndrome, yellow fever, polio and cholera. The DON web page is highly visited with a readership of over 2.6 million visits per year, on average. The DON report structure has evolved over time, from a single paragraph in 1996 to a detailed report with seven sections currently. WHO regularly reviews the DON report process and structure for improvements. In the last 25 years, DON reports have played a unique role in rapidly disseminating information on acute public health events to health actors and the public globally. They have become a key information source for the global public health response to the benefit of individuals and communities.

A global research agenda on public health and social measures during emergencies.

The importance of strong coordination for research on public health and social measures was highlighted at the Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly in 2021. This article describes efforts undertaken by the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop a global research agenda on the use of public health and social measures during health emergencies. This work includes a multistep process that started with a global technical consultation convened by WHO in September 2021. The consultation included experts from around the world and from a wide range of disciplines, such as public health, education, tourism, finance and social sciences, and aimed to identify research and implementation approaches based on lessons learnt during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. To prepare for future epidemics and pandemics, it is essential to adopt a more robust, comparable and systematic research approach to public health and social measures. Such comprehensive approach will better inform agile, balanced and context-specific implementation decisions during future emergencies. This article describes the methods used to develop global research priorities for public health and social measures and the next steps needed.

La soixante-quatorzième Assemblée mondiale de la Santé en 2021 a souligné l'importance d'une coordination solide pour la recherche sur la santé publique et les mesures sociales. Le présent article décrit les efforts entrepris par l'Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) pour élaborer un programme de recherche mondial sur l'utilisation des mesures de santé publique et des mesures sociales lors de situations d'urgence sanitaire. Ce travail comprend un processus en plusieurs étapes qui a commencé par une consultation technique mondiale organisée par l'OMS en septembre 2021. La consultation a réuni des experts du monde entier issus d'un large éventail de disciplines telles que la santé publique, l'éducation, le tourisme, la finance et les sciences sociales. Elle visait à identifier des approches de recherche et de mise en œuvre fondées sur les enseignements tirés de la pandémie de maladie à coronavirus de 2019. Pour se préparer aux futures épidémies et pandémies, il est essentiel d'adopter une approche de recherche plus solide, comparable et systématique en matière de santé publique et de mesures sociales. Cette approche globale permettra de mieux éclairer les décisions de mise en œuvre agiles, équilibrées et adaptées au contexte lors des futures situations d'urgence. Le présent article décrit les méthodes appliquées pour définir les priorités mondiales de recherche en matière de santé publique et de mesures sociales, ainsi que les prochaines étapes à franchir.

En la 74.ª Asamblea Mundial de la Salud, celebrada en 2021, se destacó la importancia de una sólida coordinación en la investigación sobre salud pública y medidas sociales. Este artículo describe los esfuerzos que ha emprendido la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) para desarrollar un programa mundial de investigación sobre el uso de medidas sociales y de salud pública durante las emergencias sanitarias. Este trabajo incluye un proceso de varios pasos que comenzó con una consulta técnica mundial que convocó la OMS en septiembre de 2021. La consulta incluyó a expertos de todo el mundo y de una gran variedad de disciplinas, como la salud pública, la educación, el turismo, las finanzas y las ciencias sociales, y tuvo como objetivo identificar enfoques de investigación y aplicación basados en las lecciones aprendidas durante la pandemia de la enfermedad por coronavirus de 2019. Para prepararse ante futuras epidemias y pandemias, es esencial adoptar un enfoque de investigación más sólido, comparable y sistemático en materia de salud pública y medidas sociales. Este enfoque integral informará mejor las decisiones de aplicación ágiles, equilibradas y adaptadas al contexto durante futuras emergencias. En este artículo se describen los métodos utilizados para elaborar las prioridades mundiales de investigación sobre salud pública y medidas sociales, así como los próximos pasos necesarios.

Optimising the Delivery of RHDV to Rabbits for Biocontrol: An Experimental Evaluation of Two Novel Methods of Virus Delivery.

Rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) is established as a landscape-scale biocontrol that assists the management of invasive European rabbits and their impacts in both Australia and New Zealand. In addition to this, it is also available to land managers to augment rabbit control efforts at a local scale. However, current methods of deploying RHDV to rabbits that rely on the consumption of virus-treated baits can be problematic as rabbits are reluctant to consume bait when there is abundant, green, protein-rich feed available. We ran a suite of interrupted time-series experiments to compare the duration of infectivity of two conventional (carrot and oat baits) and two novel (meat bait and soil burrow spray) methods of deploying RHDV to rabbits. All methods effectively killed exposed rabbits. Soil burrow spray and carrot baits resulted in infection and mortality out to 5 days post their deployment in the field, and meat baits caused infection out to 10 days post their deployment. In contrast, oat baits continued to infect and kill exposed rabbits out to 20 days post deployment. Molecular assays demonstrated high viral loads in deployed baits beyond the duration for which they were infectious or lethal to rabbits. Based on our results, we suggest that the drying of meat baits may create a barrier to effective transmission of RHDV by adult flies within 10 days. We therefore hypothesise that fly larvae production and development on infected tissues is critical to prolonged viral transmission from meat baits, and similarly from carcasses of RHDV mortalities, via mechanical fly vectors. Our study demonstrates that meat baits and soil spray could provide additional virus deployment options that remove the need for rabbits to consume baits at times when they are reluctant to do so.

WHO Global Situational Alert System: a mixed methods multistage approach to identify country-level COVID-19 alerts.

BACKGROUND: Globally, since 1 January 2020 and as of 24 January 2023, there have been over 664 million cases of COVID-19 and over 6.7 million deaths reported to WHO. WHO developed an evidence-based alert system, assessing public health risk on a weekly basis in 237 countries, territories and areas from May 2021 to June 2022. This aimed to facilitate the early identification of situations where healthcare capacity may become overstretched. METHODS: The process involved a three-stage mixed methods approach. In the first stage, future deaths were predicted from the time series of reported cases and deaths to produce an initial alert level. In the second stage, this alert level was adjusted by incorporating a range of contextual indicators and accounting for the quality of information available using a Bayes classifier. In the third stage, countries with an alert level of 'High' or above were added to an operational watchlist and assistance was deployed as needed. RESULTS: Since June 2021, the system has supported the release of more than US$27 million from WHO emergency funding, over 450 000 rapid antigen diagnostic testing kits and over 6000 oxygen concentrators. Retrospective evaluation indicated that the first two stages were needed to maximise sensitivity, where 44% (IQR 29%-67%) of weekly watchlist alerts would not have been identified using only reported cases and deaths. The alerts were timely and valid in most cases; however, this could only be assessed on a non-representative sample of countries with hospitalisation data available. CONCLUSIONS: The system provided a standardised approach to monitor the pandemic at the country level by incorporating all available data on epidemiological analytics and contextual assessments. While this system was developed for COVID-19, a similar system could be used for future outbreaks and emergencies, with necessary adjustments to parameters and indicators.

PulseNet Latin America and the Caribbean Network: Present and Future.

PulseNet Latin America and Caribbean (PNLAC) was established in 2003 and is one of seven Regional networks within PulseNet International. The main objectives of the network are to strengthen national and regional laboratory-based foodborne disease surveillance for early detection and investigation of outbreaks to setup control and prevention strategies in contribution to Public Health. Participants perform standardized pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) protocols and analysis. For functioning, it is important for the network, the development of national and regional databases (RDBs) and the communication between countries, regionally and internationally. Metadata from over 8600 cases/outbreaks are profiled and isolated by PFGE and are incorporated into the RDB, hosted by the Pan American Health Organization. Currently PNLAC is moving toward whole-genome sequencing to use as a complementary strategy for surveillance. The aim of this article was to describe the experience of the construction of PNLAC, and its contribution to the surveillance of the foodborne diseases at the country and regional levels.

Antibiotic resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoea and treatment outcomes of gonococcal urethritis suspected patients in two large hospitals in Bhutan, 2015.

INTRODUCTION: Gonorrhea is a major sexually transmitted infection (STI) globally with increasing trends. Despite limited data, gonorrhea remains an important public health problem in Bhutan. METHODS: A descriptive study was carried out in two Bhutanese hospitals; Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital and Phuentsholing General Hospital in 2015. Patients suspected of gonococcal urethritis were sampled, treated and followed up at two weeks. Gonococcal isolates were identified and tested for antibiotic susceptibility by the Calibrated Dichotomous Sensitivity Test (CDS) method. RESULTS: Of the 524 patients, 2.3% (12) were females. Most (46.6%) patients belonged to the 26-35 years age group. About 58% were lost to follow up; 62% (277) of males and all (12) females. N. gonorrhoea was positive in 76% (398) of microscopy and 73.1% (383) by culture. Resistance against ciprofloxacin, penicillin, tetracycline and nalidixic acid were 85.1%, 99.2%, 84.8% and 99.7% respectively. Nearly all the isolates were sensitive to cefpodoxime, ceftriaxone and azithromycin. Sixty-seven percent (350) were treated with injection ceftriaxone alone, 32% (169) with ceftriaxone and oral doxycycline and 1% (5) with ceftriaxone, doxycycline and metronidazole. Probable treatment failure was seen only in one patient (0.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Gonococcal resistance to currently used antibiotics was low and there was a high clinical cure rate. Compliance to treatment guidelines need reinforcement addressing antibiotic regimen, tracing sexual partners and addressing the social stigma. National STI programs should be more women-friendly for effective management, prevention and control of STIs. Laboratories must adopt more reliable susceptibility testing methods, the Minimum Inhibition Concentration method.

Designing and Evaluating Bamboo Harvesting Methods for Local Needs: Integrating Local Ecological Knowledge and Science.

Dendrocalamus hamiltonii, a large, clump-forming bamboo, has great potential to contribute towards poverty alleviation efforts across its distributional range. Harvesting methods that maximize yield while they fulfill local objectives and ensure sustainability are a research priority. Documenting local ecological knowledge on the species and identifying local users' goals for its production, we defined three harvesting treatments (selective cut, horseshoe cut, clear cut) and experimentally compared them with a no-intervention control treatment in an action research framework. We implemented harvesting over three seasons and monitored annually and two years post-treatment. Even though the total number of culms positively influenced the number of shoots regenerated, a much stronger relationship was detected between the number of culms harvested and the number of shoots regenerated, indicating compensatory growth mechanisms to guide shoot regeneration. Shoot recruitment declined over time in all treatments as well as the control; however, there was no difference among harvest treatments. Culm recruitment declined with an increase in harvesting intensity. When univariately assessing the number of harvested culms and shoots, there were no differences among treatments. However, multivariate analyses simultaneously considering both variables showed that harvested output of shoots and culms was higher with clear cut and horseshoe cut as compared to selective cut. Given the ease of implementation and issues of work safety, users preferred the horseshoe cut, but the lack of sustainability of shoot production calls for investigating longer cutting cycles.