WHO SEARO Member States participated in a points of entry workshop on airport preparedness and response on 12-14 November in Munich, Germany. The workshop was organized by the Robert Koch Institute, Germany and the Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority for the 14 participants from the Ministry of Health and airport authorities from Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The overall aim of the workshop was to provide an opportunity for representatives from health and airport authorities to strengthen capacities for emergency preparedness and response at major national level airports and to provide a forum to observe and discuss key capacities, practices and methods put in place at the Munich International Airport. This is one of the eight busiest airports in Europe by total annual number of passengers.
Today’s high traffic at airports can play a key role in the international spread of diseases through persons, conveyances and goods. Under the International Health Regulations (IHR), Member States are requested to maintain effective public health measures and response capacity at designated airports, ports and ground crossings, which includes the establishment and maintenance of public health emergency contingency plans at points of entry. Multi-agency, multisectoral airport emergency plans are essential to ensure a robust effective and consistent response to emergencies, regardless of the hazard.
Topics covered in the workshop included best practices related to emergency preparedness and response to public health events in air transport, key considerations on maintenance of IHR core capacities at points of entry and key components of airport emergency response plans, ensuring optimal interoperability among different agencies. A focus was put on command and control structures that are vital for timely decision-making as well as mechanisms and procedures to ensure rapid transport of suspected cases of an infectious disease to a designated health care facility, and required arrangements to guarantee appropriate treatment, isolation and diagnosis.
SEARO Member States shared lessons learned and presented on the current status of preparedness at their respective airports. WHO SEARO will continue to support Member States strengthening and maintaining capacities in this priority area and looks forward to continue the collaboration with the Robert Koch Institute to support experience sharing and knowledge transfer.