January - March 2025
On the path to recovery: three months after the earthquake in Vanuatu
Three months ago, the ground shook beneath Vanuatu’s capital of over 50 000 when a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck Port Vila on 17 December 2024. WHO supported the country to assess impact, establish early warning and response surveillance systems, enhance surveillance efforts, train health workers and provide communities with life-saving information. Through the generosity of the Australian Government, WHO also provided rapid diagnostic tests that enabled faster confirmation of suspected cases.
Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) builds on efforts to advance national health security through its second Joint External Evaluation
To strengthen health security preparedness and response capacities, the Lao Ministry of Health — in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and relevant partners from multiple sectors — completed its second Joint External Evaluation (JEE) from March 17 - 21, 2025. The evaluation aimed to reinforce the country’s capacity to implement its National Workplan for Health Security, following the country’s first JEE in 2017.
JEEs are a mechanism through which countries assess, enhance, and advance national capacities under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR). These include the ability to identify gaps in health security systems; prioritize measures for more effective preparedness; strengthen actions for detection and early response; and strategically fund pathways for improvement.
The Philippines convenes members of its public health workforce in the first intra-action review of mpox in the Western Pacific Region
The Philippines became the first country in the Western Pacific Region to conduct an intra-action review (IAR) of mpox. During an exercise from 12-13 March 2025, over 80 representatives and experts from various sectors — health, the environment, food and drugs administration, border control, civil society and academia — came together to evaluate the Philippines’ response to mpox to date and chart the course for the year ahead.
An IAR is one of several tools that enable countries to monitor and strengthen national public health capacities under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005). In line with this, an overarching recommendation from the recent mpox IAR in the Philippines is centered on improving coordination and partnership mechanisms between agencies, clinicians, and communities — to ensure activation of systems for a more efficient operation from preparedness to response.
Strengthening Mongolia’s National Public Health Emergency Operations Centre through training and simulation exercises
On 28 February 2025, Mongolia launched its Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) under the leadership of the Minister of Health Dr. T. Munkhsaikhan, with support from WHO and funded by the Pandemic Fund. The PHEOC is envisaged as Mongolia’s hub for multisectoral, evidence-based decision making for timely and effective preparedness and response to emergencies. WHO conducted training and virtual simulation exercises in Ulaanbaatar — involving government stakeholders from across sectors — to evaluate and enhance the PHEOC's functionality.
Three Pacific island countries conduct a risk profiling and emergency workforce mapping exercise
Pacific island countries, are increasingly impacted by climate-change related risks: landslides, tropical cyclones, flooding, storm surges, rising sea levels, and fluctuating weather patterns — that pose a significant threat to health security. From January-March 2024, Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands and the Marshall Islands conducted risk profiling exercises to identify potential hazards and map related emergency workforce capacities using an all-hazards approach. WHO’s strategic risk-based approach to emergency management reflects a paradigm shift in managing risks: moving away from reactive, event-based, single-hazard, single-agency and top-down planning — towards a more collaborative, proactive, risk-based, all-hazard, multisectoral and participatory approach.
Fiji's FEMAT reclassified: maintaining global standards as an emergency medical team
Fiji's Emergency Medical Assistance Team (FEMAT) celebrates maintaining its status as a WHO-classified Type 1 Fixed Emergency Medical Team (EMT). Having achieved classification in 2019, FEMAT demonstrated its continued compliance with global standards, showing that the team remains capable of providing medical surge support and quality emergency care during a disaster outbreak.
Reclassifications are undertaken every 5 years after initial attainment to confirm continued alignment with WHO’s EMT principles and minimum standards. The reclassification was confirmed after two days of intense evaluation by a team of experts from WHO and peer-reviewers from the Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT) and the New Zealand Medical Assistance Team (NZMAT), both of which are also WHO-classified EMTs.
Infectious disease experts across Japan receive GOARN partner-led International Outbreak Response Training
In January 2025, the National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM) in Japan, a partner of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Outbreak and Alert Response Network (GOARN), hosted an interactive training session focused on deploying through GOARN for outbreak response. The training brought together 24 Japanese infectious disease experts, preparing them to collaborate effectively within diverse, multidisciplinary teams during disease outbreaks. This initiative supports WHO's Global Health Emergency Corps vision, which seeks to standardize and strengthen emergency response capabilities globally through established health emergency networks.
National influenza centres are the backbone of early detection and disease outbreak response
Countries in the Asia Pacific Region face an ever-present risk of an emerging novel pathogen with pandemic potential. National influenza centres (NICs) provide oversight and support for the initial stage of testing influenza viruses and are the backbone of WHO’s Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS), a global mechanism and resource for surveillance and control of influenza and other respiratory viruses. GISRS comprises 151 NICs in 129 countries, seven WHO Collaborating Centres and 12 H5 Reference Laboratories.
Cambodia is an example of how the GISRS network can be leveraged for early detection and disease outbreak response of respiration. In response to an uptick in human cases of avian influenza (H5N1), the country successfully detected and implemented outbreak response measures, leveraging its national capacities, and working in collaboration with their National Influenza Centre, the H5 Reference Laboratory, and WHO Collaborating Centres for Influenza, to curb the spread of the disease.
Building a safer food future: Papua New Guinea and WHO unite multisectoral stakeholders to enhance food safety and public health
Papua New Guinea (PNG), like many other countries, is increasingly dependent on imported food. While national laws and regulations for food safety exist, they are obsolete and urgently need to be aligned to relevant regional and global food standards. In partnership with WHO, the PNG National Department of Health (NDoH) has developed a new Food Safety policy and amended the Food Sanitation Act of 1991. The NDoH is also developing plans and standard operating procedures (SOPs) specific to food safety control systems and food imports, focusing on minimizing risk and safeguarding consumer health.
Early detection of public health outbreaks saves lives
Epidemic Intelligence from Open Source (EIOS) is a vital tool that enables early detection and assessment of public health threats, in near real time. WHO has thus far trained over 250 surveillance experts —across Brunei Darussalam, China, Fiji, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Republic of Korea and Samoa—boosting their capacity to rapidly detect outbreaks, which is a key priority action under the Asia Pacific Health Security Action Framework.
WHO is pleased to welcome representatives from Singapore and the Republic of Korea as members of the EIOS Coordination Group. The Group provides strategic recommendations and advises on activities and priorities.
Western Pacific Surveillance and Response Journal
The Editorial Team of Western Pacific Surveillance and Response (WPSAR) is pleased to announce the publication of our first-quarter issue of 2025, Volume 16 Issue 1.
- Focusing field epidemiology training on national health priorities in Papua New Guinea: consultative prioritization, from health workers to policy-makers
- Whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 from residual viral RNA present on positive rapid antigen test kits for genomic surveillance
- COVID-19 infection control practices in designated quarantine hotels in Hong Kong SAR (China), 2020–2022: key elements in preparing for the next pandemic
- Hepatitis A outbreak among men who have sex with men, Shinjuku, Japan, 2018
- Estimating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on infectious disease notifications in Klang district, Malaysia, 2020–2022
- Monitoring mortality in the setting of COVID-19 pandemic control in Victoria, Australia: a time series analysis of population data
- Foodborne illness from tuba-tuba seeds among school-aged children, Philippines: a call for community education
- Satellite communications in health emergencies: no longer a luxury
WPSAR is an open access, peer-reviewed journal housed in WPRO/WHE that serves as an information-sharing platform, publishing articles on health security activities for public health emergencies and events in the Region. Our contributors include WPRO and CO staff and consultants, as well as MOH/DOH staff, health-care practitioners and field epidemiologists from across the Region.
If you have an idea for an article, please feel free to consult us by emailing wpsar@who.int.
