Department of Applied Epidemiology, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, College of Health and Medicine, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
World Health Organization Regional Office for South-East Asia, New Delhi, India.
Western Pac Surveill Response J. 2024 Aug 12;15(5 Spec edition):1-7. doi: 10.5365/wpsar.2024.15.5.1109. eCollection 2024.
The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network's (GOARN) mechanism used to rapidly deploy technical support for international responses and highlighted areas that require strengthened capacity within the Network. GOARN's partners in the World Health Organization's (WHO) South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions were engaged to explore their levels of preparedness, readiness and ability to respond to international public health emergencies.
Consultative discussions were held and a survey was conducted with GOARN's partners from the two WHO regions. Discussion topics included partners' capacity to support and participate in a GOARN deployment, training, research and collaboration. Descriptive and content analyses were conducted.
Barriers to engaging in GOARN's international outbreak response efforts included limited numbers of personnel trained to respond to outbreaks; institutional, financial and administrative hurdles; and limited collaboration opportunities. Partners identified innovative solutions that could strengthen their engagement with deployment, such as financial subsidies, mentorship for less experienced staff, and the ability to provide remote support.
GOARN plays an important role in enabling WHO to fulfil its international alert and response duties during disease outbreaks and humanitarian crises that have the potential to spark disease outbreaks. Yet without systematic improvement to strengthen national outbreak capacity and regional connectedness, support for international outbreak responses may remain limited. Thus, it is necessary to integrate novel approaches to support international deployments, as identified in this study.
COVID-19 大流行挑战了全球疫情警报和反应网络（GOARN）用于快速部署国际应对技术支持的机制，并突出了网络内部需要加强能力的领域。参与世界卫生组织（WHO）东南亚和西太平洋区域的 GOARN 合作伙伴进行了探讨，以了解他们应对国际突发公共卫生事件的准备、就绪情况和应对能力。
与来自这两个世卫组织区域的 GOARN 合作伙伴进行了磋商讨论和调查。讨论的主题包括合作伙伴支持和参与 GOARN 部署、培训、研究和合作的能力。进行了描述性和内容分析。
参与 GOARN 国际疫情应对工作的障碍包括：应对疫情的培训人员人数有限；体制、财务和行政障碍；以及合作机会有限。合作伙伴确定了一些创新的解决方案，可以加强他们在部署方面的参与，例如财政补贴、为经验不足的员工提供指导以及提供远程支持的能力。
GOARN 在使世卫组织能够履行其在疾病爆发和人道主义危机期间的国际警报和应对职责方面发挥了重要作用，这些危机有可能引发疾病爆发。然而，如果不系统地加以改进，以加强国家疫情应对能力和区域联系，对国际疫情应对的支持可能仍然有限。因此，有必要结合本研究中确定的新方法来支持国际部署。
