Dear colleagues,

We wish to inform you that the updated WHO checklist for pandemic influenza preparedness planning - “A checklist for pandemic influenza risk and impact management: building capacity for pandemic response - 2018 update” has been published.

It can be accessed on this link.

This checklist is a tool to help national authorities to develop or update national pandemic influenza preparedness plans for managing the risk and impact of an influenza pandemic under the guiding principles of the 2017 WHO pandemic influenza preparedness framework - “Pandemic Influenza Risk Management”. It updates and replaces the 2005 WHO checklist for influenza pandemic preparedness planning.

Key considerations and updates include:

·         Lessons learned from the 2009 influenza A(H1N1) pandemic;

·         Updated WHO guidance on topics related to pandemic influenza and public health emergency planning;

·         IHR (2005) core capacity requirements and other relevant developments in health security: pandemic influenza preparedness planning activities are mapped to the indicators in the IHR (2005) core capacity monitoring framework and IHR Joint External Evaluation (JEE) tool to draw direct links between pandemic preparedness and IHR core capacity requirements, integrating the essential capacities needed to manage the risk and impact of pandemic influenza with the core capacities required to manage broader health security threats;

·         Pandemic influenza risk and severity assessments are added and their importance in pandemic influenza risk and impact management is emphasized;

·         The principles of Emergency Risk Management for Health (ERMH) from the “Pandemic Influenza Risk Management” framework are integrated into pandemic influenza preparedness planning through an emphasis on multisectoral and multidisciplinary approaches; and

·         Key resources of guidance documents that support corresponding areas in pandemic influenza preparedness and response are provided in each section of the checklist.

Best regards,

Global Influenza Programme

World Health Organization

Geneva, Switzerland

Download "A Checklist for Pandemic Influenza Risk and Impact Management: building capacity for pandemic response - 2018 Update"