The World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners, in collaboration with Member States, activated, in October 2024, for the first time the Global Health Emergency Corps (GHEC) to support countries facing to Mpox epidemics.
The GHEC is a group of professionals whose goal is to strengthen the response to health emergencies and a collaboration platform for countries and health emergency networks. It supports countries in their health emergency workforce, the deployment of experts and the networking of technical managers. The GHEC was established by WHO in 2023 after the response to the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the need to streamline the efforts of existing networks to ensure more coordinated support to countries, explains a note received by APA.
“WHO and partners are supporting the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries to implement an integrated approach to case detection, contact tracing, targeted vaccination, clinical and home care, infection prevention and control, community engagement and mobilization and specialized logistical support »said Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme.
According to him, the GHEC strengthens the capacity of the many effective stakeholders at the national and regional levels to collaborate and ensure success on the ground to interrupt transmission and reduce suffering.
The first activation of this new support mechanism follows the declaration of Mpox as a public health emergency of international concern by the Director-General of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on August 14, 2024. Eighteen African countries have reported cases of Mpox this year, and the rapid spread of Mpox clade 1b to at least two other regions has raised concerns about further spread.
In collaboration with the International Association of National Institutes of Public Health, the GHEC is assessing the capacities of emergency personnel in 8 countries affected by the Mpox epidemic, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, the two countries most affected.
The assessment has so far identified 22 areas that need strengthening, including epidemiology and surveillance, laboratory capacity, infection prevention and control, risk communication and community engagement. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Health Cluster partners have joined forces to strengthen coordination put in place by the Ministry of Health under the direction of the Public Health Emergency Operations Center.
As of October 17, WHO has managed to deploy 56 experts to affected countries. These include WHO staff as well as experts mobilized through the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and the African Health Volunteer Corps (AVoHC- SURGE). AVoHC-SURGE responders, coordinated by the WHO Regional Office for Africa and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, constitute a growing group of professionals with diverse skills who can be deployed in the region.
“By mobilizing trained professionals on the continent, we ensure that interventions are not only timely but also adapted to the context,” underlined Dr Abdou Salam Gueye, Regional Emergency Director of the WHO Regional Office for Africa, adding: “The dedication and expertise of these responders are essential to saving lives and building resilient health systems that can withstand future threats. »
Additionally, GOARN is leading efforts to map assistance provided by partners on a bilateral basis to affected countries and the regional coordination structure. This includes the provision of experts, supplies, financial support, capacity building and other activities.
TE/APA
