The acute pandemic response phase of COVID-19 is moving towards longer-term public health management plans. At the same time, circulation of seasonal influenza viruses has resurged. Naturally, this calls for countries to monitor influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and other respiratory viruses with pandemic potential to inform control policies on an ongoing basis. Disease surveillance needs to provide opportunities for sustainable detection and monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 virus evolution. This must include emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 virus, zoonotic and novel influenza, MERS-CoV and other novel respiratory viruses of pandemic potential. It must also assess their relative transmissibility and severity, compared to known respiratory viruses and diseases.
Recognizing the above needs, at the 150th session of the Executive Board of the World Health Assembly, Member States supported the sentinel surveillance platform (influenza) of the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System or GISRS to be further leveraged to meet key monitoring needs, not only for influenza, but also for SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses.
Accordingly, the Global Influenza Programme at WHO has been tasked with developing a strategic action plan in this direction. This document will outline priority surveillance systems that may be used to sustainably monitor respiratory viruses, detect variants or novel viruses, and highlight critical surveillance gaps for addressing/resolution of them.
Specifically, the strategic action plan will:
- provide a strategy to countries on how respiratory viruses of pandemic potential should be sustainably monitored, assessed, and new variants or novel viruses be detected, using existing surveillance platforms.
- form a model for possible inter-connected surveillance for influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses moving forward and
- help international partners and donor agencies focus technical and financial resources on the most essential surveillance needs.
The strategic plan will also highlight priority actions to help countries transition to sustainable monitoring of respiratory viruses using existing surveillance platforms, and indicate priority areas of focus for 2022 and 2023. An implementation plan will then be developed and subsequent meetings and workplans will focus on further strengthening the surveillance systems that are identified as priorities to support sustainable monitoring and early detection of respiratory viruses of pandemic potential.
Development of such a strategy must be done by analyzing and prioritizing short-medium term, early post-pandemic surveillance needs, examining which needs may be best met within and beyond existing surveillance approaches, and defining immediate actions to bridge critical gaps.
WHO is therefore organizing a global consultation to support the development of a sustainable surveillance strategy for respiratory viruses of pandemic potential. This surveillance consultation would be preceded by focused, informal regional meetings/consultations to consolidate input on these objectives from the regional and country-level.
In line with these requirements, the WHE/HIM unit, WHE/IHM unit, Influenza Team of WHE/IHM at the South-East Asia Regional Office with the support of WHO Country Offices will be organizing a series of two consultations:
- First consultation will be held on 6 April 2022 to facilitate feedback from Member States on current objectives, achievements, and challenges in WHO-HQ COVID-19 surveillance as well as recommendations and basic strategic framework for transitioning surveillance for COVID-19; This consultation will be organized by the WHE/HIM unit
- Second consultation will be held on 28 April 2022 to facilitate identification by MS of priority surveillance questions for respiratory viruses in short-medium term in the post-COVID period; determine how current surveillance systems would best synergize to address these questions; and understand the needs of MS to help overcome barriers of ongoing surveillance systems in sustainably addressing priority questions. Second consultation will be coordinated by the WHE/IHM unit.
The high likelihood of future pandemics being caused by respiratory pathogens is widely understood. Harmonizing surveillance across multiple known respiratory pathogens and novel pathogens offers MS an opportunity to maximize available resources, increase coordination, and reduce duplication of efforts.
The development and implementation of such an integrated surveillance of respiratory pathogens will also contribute to all-hazards readiness and implementation of International Health Regulations (IHR) core capacities as indicated in the International Health Regulations (IHR-2005).