Dhaka, 27 April 2025 – As part of WHO’s commitment to strengthening health emergency preparedness in the South-East Asia Region, the IHM Unit, with participation of the Medical Officer- High Threat Pathogen (HTP) conducted a national workshop in Bangladesh to pilot a High-Threat Pathogen Prioritisation methodology. This activity forms part of a broader WHO initiative to provide technical support to countries in the region in identifying and preparing for infectious disease threats with epidemic or pandemic potential.
Organised by WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme (WHE), South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO), and the WHO Country Office in Bangladesh, the workshop brought together 41 experts from public health, veterinary, environmental, and emergency sectors. With technical support from the University of Queensland, Australia, participants applied a structured, evidence-based tool to assess and prioritise pathogens based on their national risk and impact.
The initiative supports countries in systematically identifying high-priority pathogens based on factors such as epidemic potential, transmissibility, severity of impact, detection capacity, and local presence, socio-economic and environmental impact, climate sensitivity, intersectoral collaboration etc. During the Dhaka workshop, twelve pathogens were evaluated using a customised scoring tool. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), Nipah virus, dengue, and cholera emerged as top threats.
This prioritisation tool is part of WHO’s broader mission to support countries in building resilience through informed, context-specific decision-making. It provides a structured pathway for governments to align preparedness efforts with actual risks on the ground and allocate resources more strategically.
Participants appreciated the tool’s clarity and flexibility, noting that it could serve as a valuable asset in developing national policies, emergency response plans, and investment strategies. Feedback collected after the event also underscored the importance of early engagement with stakeholders, easy-to-understand reference materials, and further refinements to simplify the scoring process.
This workshop reflects WHO’s broader support for integrating risk-based planning into national implementation of frameworks such as the Strategic Toolkit for Assessing Risks (STAR) and the Health Emergency Preparedness, Response and Resilience (HEPR) strategy. The initiative also promotes regional collaboration by encouraging countries to exchange lessons learned and align their health emergency preparedness efforts.
By building technical capacity and supporting institutionalisation of pathogen risk prioritisation, WHO aims to empower Member States to take a proactive stance against future outbreaks—ensuring timely, coordinated, and evidence-informed responses that safeguard regional and global health security.
Following the Bangladesh pilot, IHM Unit plans to replicate the HTP Prioritisation process in other Member States across the South-East Asia Region. Efforts are also underway to make the tool and methodology more broadly accessible to countries beyond the region, including through peer -reviewed publication of the protocol, supporting global uptake and harmonised approaches to epidemic preparedness.