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OUTCOME
24. Epidemic and pandemic prevention and control
Health Emergencies
PB
2024-2025
24. Epidemic and pandemic prevention and control
24. Epidemic and pandemic prevention and control
Budget
Approved Budget PB (Previous)
37.6
US$ MILLION
Priority

High

Proposed Budget PB (Current)
38.4
US$ MILLION
Related Outputs and Indicators
  • 24.1.a. Number of strategies in place at PASB to plan, forecast, or deploy effective packages of response measures to high-threat and emerging pathogens, including procurement and management of regional supply reserves
    Baseline
    7
    Target
    10
  • 24.2.a. Number of countries and territories with strategies and/or plans in place to detect and respond to high-threat and emerging pathogens, including emerging zoonotic pathogens
    Baseline
    27
    Target
    29
  • 24.3.a. Number of countries and territories with access to established expert networks and national laboratory policies to support prediction, detection, prevention, control, and response to high-threat and emerging pathogens, including emerging zoonotic pathogens
    Baseline
    27
    Target
    29
  • 24.3.b. Number of countries and territories performing regular monitoring/auditing of infection prevention and control practices in referral care facilities
    Baseline
    19
    Target
    22
  • 24.3.c. Number of countries and territories with operational integrated surveillance systems and pandemic preparedness plans for respiratory viruses, including influenza and COVID-19
    Baseline
    34
    Target
    37
How PASB will deliver

Key Technical Cooperation Interventions
 

  • Step up leadership
    • Support countries and territories in the surveillance, preparedness, and response to high-threat and emerging pathogens and diseases with pandemic and epidemic potential, including respiratory viruses (influenza viruses, coronaviruses, syncytial respiratory virus, and other respiratory viruses), yellow fever and emerging arboviral diseases, hemorrhagic fevers (filoviral diseases, arenaviral diseases), diseases caused by hantaviruses, bacterial diseases (cholera, meningococcal diseases, plague, leptospirosis), and emerging zoonotic pathogens.
    • Carry out work with partners in animal and environmental health, mainly the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the World Organization for Animal Health.
  • Support countries
    • Provide direct technical cooperation to countries and territories to enhance national epidemic/pandemic preparedness and response plans and to strengthen national capacities on the continuum of surveillance, early detection, containment, and response to high-threat and emerging pathogens and biosecurity hazards. This includes strengthening of epidemiologic/virologic/genomic surveillance systems, laboratory diagnostic and reference services and their networking, biosafety and biosecurity, case management at the different levels of care, infection prevention and control at national and health facility levels, planning and deployment of countermeasures, and intersectoral coordination. When needed, PASB will supplement national procurement, for instance, to ensure availability of essential laboratory reagents and supplies and of personal protective equipment.
    • Improve regional and national capacities for characterizing, modeling, and forecasting the risk of high-threat and emerging pathogens, including those at the human-animal-environment interface, to monitor their level of occurrence and enable their early detection and containment at the source. In readiness for future threats, refine, formalize, and institutionalize, as applicable, tools and systems in PASB that were rapidly scaled up and adapted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes monitoring epidemiological trends and the emergence of new variants of concern.
    • Through the One Health approach, build stronger capacities for preparedness and response at the human-animal-environment interface to address risks from epidemic-prone and emerging zoonotic pathogens. 
    • Support countries and territories, civil society organizations, and communities to develop and implement innovative approaches to tackle the threat of misinformation and disinformation, such as building a new workforce of infodemiologists and infodemic managers.
  • Produce technical products on norms and standards, data, and research
    • Enhance regional preparedness, response, and resilience to high-threat and emerging diseases by establishing and/or working through networks on surveillance, laboratory services, clinical management, and infection prevention and control, among other areas, including networks of risk communication and community engagement specialists, science translators, as well as knowledge hubs. Intersectoral coordination will be emphasized to address the needs of populations living in conditions of vulnerability and to address risks at the human-animal-environment interface. This work will be carried out in the context of key regional strategies (e.g., Strategy on Regional Genomic Surveillance for Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Response) as well as global strategies on respiratory pathogens, yellow fever, meningococcal diseases, cholera, and other issues, and in accordance with provisions of the International Health Regulations. Additionally, PASB will manage regional mechanisms for tackling the international dimension of epidemic diseases, with special emphasis on the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework.
    • Develop recommendations on risk communication and community engagement to implement effective social science interventions during outbreaks of epidemic-prone and emerging pathogens and promote community engagement before, during, and after emergencies.