The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the WHO European Regional Office (WHO Europe) published a report for public health stakeholders on Thursday 2 June. The document aims to assess and strengthen early warning, alert and response (EWAR) to signals indicating a potential public health emergency in countries hosting people displaced by Russian aggression in Ukraine.
The authors of the report note that people displaced from Ukraine to Europe may be more vulnerable to specific public health emergencies and risks. For a variety of reasons, many existing national early warning and response systems may be ill-equipped to perform the EWAR function.
Such early detection and warning is crucial for the control of diseases with epidemic potential and thus for the protection of local communities and refugees.
The document is presented as a checklist. The report also brings together all relevant resources available. Finally, it mentions the existing notification and alert tools at European and international level.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/1xa (Original version in French by Emilie Vanderhulst)