Addressing Public Health Emergencies

Addressing Public Health Emergencies

• Articles
• April 25, 2026

Addressing Public Health Emergencies: The Role of International Collaboration

Introduction

Epidemic emergencies are sudden-onset public health threats that pose risks to human health and safety and include high-impact epidemics such as Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers, Yellow Fever, Meningitis and Cholera. Public health emergencies on the other hand refers to any situation natural, biological, chemical, radiological, or environmental that pose significant threats to the health of populations, that require immediate and coordinated response to prevent widespread illness or death.   These emergencies can include infectious disease outbreaks, pandemics, chemical spills, food contamination, extreme weather events, and other hazards that compromise public health security. Risk factors such as poverty, age, migration, displacement, and unplanned urbanization increase vulnerability to these threats.

The health impacts of these public health threats, such as emerging infectious diseases (e.g., 2003 SARS epidemic, 2009 influenza A pandemic, 2016 Zika outbreak and the Coronavirus disease pandemic in 2019), environmental catastrophes (e.g., 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster), and natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes and the ensuant devastating tsunamis), have demonstrated the importance of the need to strengthen national public health systems while improving the community’s ability to respond effectively.  Moreover, lessons from COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the importance of robust and resilient national health infrastructure and systems, functional digital health platforms, and coordinated governance mechanisms.

Risk Assessment and Preparedness for Public Health Emergencies

The World Health Organization (WHO) has placed emphasis on preparedness, prevention, detection, and rapid response to all-hazard health emergencies, including epidemics and pandemics.  Effective management of public health emergencies (PHE) therefore should begin with risk assessment. This involves the identification of potential threats and resource requirements to develop plans, protocols, and procedures for rapid response. Because of the unpredictability of public health emergencies, it has become expedient that countries and organizations build core public health capacities, including surveillance systems, laboratory networks, trained personnel, and emergency operations Centres, to detect, assess, and respond promptly to such public health threats. Digital platforms, real-time data sharing, and citizen-participatory surveillance enhance early detection and situational awareness have become imperatives for our contemporary 21st Century emergency preparedness and response strategies.  

Our World has become a global village and considering the fact the first 100 days of a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) are particularly crucial for effective containment and mitigation; there is need for urgency in addressing any emergent PHEIC’s. It should be noted that the era of solo national initiatives has become untenable. The acceptable strategy is for a coordinated response to public health emergencies; which should involve the activation of emergency response operations, at global, regional, sub-regional, national and sub-national levels with the activation and implementation of context and situation-specific standard operating procedures by the mobilization at short notice of all trained and kitted emergency response teams at all levels; including massive awareness creation on necessary precautionary measures to be taken by citizens.

Health emergency preparedness and Readiness

No country is exempt from risks and potential health threats from infectious diseases, food contamination, chemical and radio nuclear incidents, and threats associated with climate change including extreme weather events and deforestation.  Predisposing risk factors that increase people’s exposure and vulnerability to these threats and hazards include poverty, age, gender, migration, health and nutritional status, displacement and unplanned urbanization.

There is need therefore for countries to evaluate their capacity and readiness to handle PHEIC’s, then develop and strengthen the core public health and health system capacities laid out in the International Health Regulations, to detect, assess, notify and report events and to respond promptly and effectively to any public health emergency.

It is expected that countries, communities and organizations should have the capacity to respond immediately and effectively to potential health threats and emergencies caused by any hazard.  For an effective response, readiness is essential. Readiness is the bridge between longer-term preparedness actions and immediate response to emergencies. The requisite actions are intended to build, improve and sustain the operational capabilities of countries to respond to public health risks, and ensure sustained capacity on the ground.

Health Emergency Information and Risk Assessment

The expected terms of reference /scope of work for the Health Emergency Information and Risk Assessment Department /Unit is to provide authoritative information for public health decision-making in emergencies, with responsibility for identifying new public health events, assessing risks to public health, conducting epidemiological surveillance and field investigations, monitoring public health interventions, and communicating public health information to technical partners.

 

Strategic Health Operations

The Strategic Health Operations leads the innovation in communication and coordination across all levels of WHO’s operations including trainings and conference services, publishing guidance documents and setting best-practices, monitoring of and reporting in emergencies, programme management, and events planning and administration. It also leads the delivery of supplies, services, facilities, and technical staff in crises, emergencies, and humanitarian areas across all of WHO’s regions and with partner institutions, including budgeting and deployment of surge staff and capacity building initiatives to countries.

Health Security Preparedness

The Health Security Preparedness mission is to enable countries to apply evidence-based data and actions in strengthening and sustaining functional capacities to prevent, detect and respond to public health emergencies. HSP supports countries to continuously assess, monitor, evaluate and build national and sub-national capacities; and develop, implement and finance National Action Plans including for Health Security. It also facilitates multi-sectoral engagement and investments at the highest levels of government through a One Health, whole-of-society approach in preparedness and capacity building.

Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention 

EPP’s two-pronged approach includes actions to strengthen epidemic and pandemic preparedness for both existing and new/emerging pathogens. The department advances these global efforts by increasing access to evidence-based interventions; fostering impactful innovation; and leveraging technical, operational and strategic partnerships. EPP develops global mechanisms to facilitate coordination and collaboration between countries and multi-sectoral partners to increase preparedness for high-impact outbreaks. 

Country-Specific Readiness Strengthening 

Each WHO member country is expected to have an emergency readiness and response strategic plan.  WHO’s Country Readiness Strengthening department works with national health authorities within the various health systems to strengthen the health systems and networks to be enable them respond quickly to public health emergencies. This is done through assessing threats facing countries and their readiness capacity, engaging leaders and increasing political will, and building knowledge to achieve long-term improvements in country readiness and public health systems. WHO provides supports in building risk-specific and community-centric approach, through strong leadership and governance, multi-sectoral coordination and collaboration, for ethical and evidence-informed action.

National Capacity for Detection and Response to Health Threats

The rapid detection, verification, assessment and communication of potential health threats is essential to the saving of lives and reducing the negative impact of health emergencies.  A rapid, multi-sectoral public health response at the country level, together with technical support from WHO and partners, is required to save lives and minimize adverse public health, social, political and economic consequences.

 Under the International Health Regulations (2005), the global Public Health Intelligence system managed by WHO helps in the detection, verification, and assessment of all potential public health events and emergencies; as well as the dissemination of  Information on signals, events and the results of risk assessments, providing authoritative evidence and analysis for decision-makers by health partners, the international community and public.  WHO is building national capacities in this ecosystem, using sophisticated analytics, artificial intelligence and other tools to more accurately predict and detect potential threats to public health.

Strategies for dealing with epidemic emergencies

To be able to prevent and respond to disease outbreaks and health threats globally, WHO has committed to strengthening public health systems to enhance community resilience against health emergencies. Moreover, the effective management of public health emergencies is essential to protect populations, maintain health system functionality, and reduce the impact of disasters on society.

This goal can bet be achieved by developing key guidelines and the provision of the requisite resources to improve national-level preparedness and response to emerging pathogens, as well as monitoring and reporting public health events through the WHO Health Emergency Dashboard.  The efforts by WHO are essential to ensuring that countries are better prepared to handle health emergencies effectively.

It is important to note that global and national frameworks are necessary to ensure readiness for pandemics, epidemics, and other health crises, minimizing morbidity and mortality. To that extent, public health emergencies require immediate, evidence-based, and coordinated action. Emergency preparedness involves risk assessment, capacity building, and technological integration.  Emergence response relies on standardized protocols, inter-agency collaboration, and real-time surveillance.

 

The role of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) in emergency preparedness and response:

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) was established in 2011 in response to the challenges of public health emergencies. It is a federal government agency under the Federal Ministry of Health, with its headquarters in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory. The NCDC is the national public health institute for Nigeria.

The NCDC is saddled with the responsibility of carrying out the early detection and real-time monitoring of health threats by supporting faster decision-making and coordinated response across national and state health systems through structured surveillance and reporting mechanisms.

To streamline execution, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been developed for managing bio-emergencies, ensuring uniformity in response protocols across healthcare institutions and agencies.