ICU Management & Practice, ICU Volume 6 - Issue 1 - Spring 2006

UN Pandemic Planning and Preparedness

www.undg.org

To counter the direct impact that an influenza pandemic may have at a global level, the United Nations System Influenza Coordination (UNSIC) has developed “UN System Pandemic Planning and Preparedness Guidelines”. These include checklists, templates and toolkits showing best practice. According to the guidelines, each country has to formulate not only a preparedness strategy but also a contingency or response plan for in the event of a pandemic. Plans for nations worldwide are accessible on line at www.undg.org. UNSIC is responsible for the monitoring and coordination of their implementation in cooperation with the World Bank, United Nations Development Group and United Nations Development Programme.


WHO: Emergency Preparedness & Capacity Building

www.who.int

The World Health Organization (WHO) held an Expert Consultation, “Emergency Preparedness for the Health Sector Communities: Challenges and Way Forward” from 15th to 17th February in Geneva, Switzerland. The main topics of discussion were preparedness for crisis situations, and analysis of recent events and future policies.WHO’s work in this field has intensified recentlyand the Health Action in Crisis (HAC) departmenthas been reorganized into three main programmes:Emergency Response Operations,Recovery and Transition, and EmergencyPreparedness & Capacity Building. The consultationin Geneva acted as a kick-off meeting for arenewed Emergency Preparedness & CapacityBuilding Programme. The main objective of theprogramme is to increaseWHO’s support to helpcountries set up their management capabilitiesfor cases of emergency and disaster. The meetingconcluded a set of recommendations forglobal strategy to scale up emergency nationalpreparedness and mitigation activities. Furtherinformation about HAC and the recommendationscan be found online at www.who.int.

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