About the Infectious Hazard Management Unit (IHM)

A large number of infectious diseases (endemic, emerging and re-emerging) continue to occur in the WHO’s South East Asia region every year. The growing incidence of these emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in humans has created a disproportionate burden on already strained health systems in countries in the South-East Asia region. Not surprisingly, there has been a major increase in pandemic and epidemic-prone diseases, such as  Influenza, hemorrhagic fevers, leptospirosis, hantavirus, emerging arboviruses, Nipah virus infections, Acute encephalitis syndrome, cholera, meningococcal infections, and epidemic-prone diarrheal diseases. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic along with these emerging and re-emerging epidemic diseases are posing an ongoing threat to the global and regional health security.

Against this background, the Infectious Hazards Management (IHM) Programme area operates within the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme (WHE) that has been set up with the mission to ensure  One billion more people are better protected from health emergencies by 2023 under WHO’s Thirteenth General Programme of Work 2019–2023 . IHM specifically contributes to WHE’s mandate of “reducing mortality, morbidity and societal disruption resulting from epidemics through prevention, preparedness, response and recovery activities.”

Fulfillment of above mandate by WHE in SEAR is facilitated  by the five-year Regional Strategic plan to strengthen Public Health Preparedness and Response (2019–2023).[WPR3] The strategic plan is an attempt to reduce vulnerability of the WHO’s SEAR to all risks and hazards prevailing in the region and reflects the result of the joint strategic vison and commitment of Member States.  

The strategic plan specifies improving core capacities to implement the International Health Regulations (IHR)(2005) in the WHO’s SEAR using an “All Hazards” approach. The “All Hazards” approach recognizes that different hazards often challenge the health system in similar ways. As such risk identification, risk assessment, risk reduction, risk management and community recovery activities are usually implemented along the same model, regardless of the cause.

In operationalizing the above  “all hazard approach”, the IHM support the WHE department to mitigate the risks of biological hazards. In this context, IHM works with the Country Preparedness and IHR (CPI) unit for pre-event preparedness, with the Health Information and Management (HIM) unit for events detection, risk assessments and with the Emergency Operations (EMO) unit for emergency response activities. IHM itself focuses on mitigating the risks of biological hazards  

Overview of the IHM unit

  1. Developing regional risk mitigation policies, strategies, plans and frameworks.
  2. Developing tools for risk mitigation and capacity building for management of high-threat infectious hazards.
  3. Conducting activities relevant to building capacities for management of high-threat infectious hazards.
  4. Establishing and working with expert networks to detect, understand and manage new and/or emerging high threat infectious hazards.
  5. Strengthening monitoring and evaluation of operational strategic frameworks, risk mitigation strategies, and capacities for priority high-threat infectious hazards.
  6. Providing secretariat support for implementing the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework; working with countries to ensure effective virus and benefits sharing including the Nagoya protocol; and providing support for implementation of the PIP Partnership Contribution (PC) funds by PIP PC eligible countries in WHO’s SEA Region.
  7. Providing technical support to other units and departments in the area of high threat pathogens.

 


For more information, please contact:

Dr Pushpa Ranjan Wijesinghe
Programme Area Manager, Infectious Hazard Management 
WHO Health Emergencies Programme
WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia
[email protected]