New Delhi 16-17 December 2019: Following on from recent successes in containing deadly outbreaks of Nipah and other high threat pathogens; and building on the success in eliminating polio, India is now readying itself to address the threat of an influenza pandemic. The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) and World Health Organization (WHO) jointly hosted a gathering of lead experts from the fields of public health, virology, epidemiology, surveillance, clinical medicine, one health, disaster management, behavioural science, risk communication and defence sector to identify and address challenges that India would face during an influenza pandemic.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Henk Bekedam, WHO Representative to India congratulated the Government of India on leading this effort and for its commitment to equip the nation to appropriately address health threats like influenza, a major infectious disease with pandemic potential. He reiterated that pandemic preparedness should be viewed as integral to preparedness for threats to human health caused by any emergency.
As part of activities to implement the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) framework in India, WHO is supporting the MoHFW to rewrite India’s pandemic preparedness plan, based on WHO Global and Regional guidance and lessons learned from the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic and other major seasonal influenza outbreaks.
Influenza pandemics are unpredictable but recurring events with the potential for serious human health consequences and costly economic impacts on a global scale. Planning and preparedness are critical to mitigate the impact of a pandemic.
This workshop involving central and state policy makers and experts, is the first step in developing an updated coordinated pandemic plan tailored to meet India’s unique health challenges.
India has a rich history of successful public health responses. Workshop participants were able to draw on these experiences to agree that pandemic responses would require strong community engagement using trusted individuals, inter-sectoral collaboration, involvement of private health care providers, build on existing influenza surveillance systems, and link with India’s existing crisis management frameworks.
Critical response components would include risk assessments to determine severity, implementation of appropriate response strategies suited to the Indian context, surveillance to assess the scale and impact of the pandemic, business continuity to ensure that essential services continue during a pandemic, and targeted communication to ensure acceptance by the public.
Thorough preparedness and response planning will help strengthen India’s health system capacity to adequately respond to public health emergencies in line with the National Health Policy 2017 and the International Health Regulations, IHR (2005). WHO is committed to continuing its collaboration with the Government of India; supporting the process to develop an updated national influenza pandemic preparedness plan.