Managing Acute Public Health Events: A World Health Organization Perspective

The role of the World Health Organization in managing acute public health events relies on two principles. First of all, strong national public health systems that can maintain active surveillance of diseases and public health events; rapidly investigate detected events; report and assess public health risk; share information; and implement public health control measures. Second, an effective global system that supports disease control programmes to contain public health risks by assessing global trends on a continuous basis and preparing to respond to unexpected and internationally spreading events with a potential for international relevance.