WHO opens Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin

The World Health Organisation (WHO) DirectorGeneral has recently inaugurated the new WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, based in Berlin. The WHO Hub, which is receiving an initial investment of $100 million from the Federal Republic of Germany, will harness broad and diverse partnerships across many professional disciplines, and the latest technology, to link the data, tools and communities of practice so that actionable data and intelligence are shared for the common good. The WHO Hub is part of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme and will be a new collaboration of countries and partners worldwide, driving innovations to increase the availability of key data; develop state-of-the-art analytic tools and predictive models for risk analysis; and link communities of practice around the world. Critically, the WHO Hub will support the work of public health experts and policy-makers in all countries with the tools needed to forecast, detect and assess epidemic and pandemic risks so they can take rapid decisions to prevent and respond to future public health emergencies.