Launched in December 2019, the Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care (SSA) is a global and standardized monitoring system for the collection of primary data about attacks on health care. The system is used in emergency-affected countries and fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings that are priority areas of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme. The dashboard aggregates global data and allows users to filter the data for tailored analysis.

The SSA methodology paper can be downloaded from WHO’s publication platform.

Search bar: The SSA dashboard’s search bar allows the user to filter global data by date range, country or territory and type of attacks.

Impact: This data represents the number of attacks in which each health resource was impacted. It does not indicate the total number of resources that were attacked. For example, one attack could have an impact on patients, transports and supplies at the same time.

Recently reported attacks: Users can access the full report by clicking on the Attack ID of interest. All attacks from the selected data range can be viewed in full using the button on the bottom right of the table.

Number of attacks by type: This data represents the number of attacks that involved each type of attack. One attack can be classified under multiple types.

Annual data: The annual data chart is linked to the country filter selected by the user and does not take into account selected date ranger nor selected types of attacks. When no country is selected, this chart reflects global numbers.

Definition: WHO defines an attack on health care as any act of verbal or physical violence or obstruction or threat of violence that interferes with the availability, access and delivery of curative and/or preventive health services during emergencies. The nature and types of attacks vary across contexts and can range from violence with heavy weapons to psychological threats or intimidation.

Verification Method:

Each reported attack is assigned a level of certainty by a designated WHO staff member which conveys a level of confidence that the reported attack has occurred. The level of certainty applies to whether the attack occurred, but does NOT apply to the detailed data about the attack.

To maintain accuracy of WHO-reported data, the SSA verification method assigns increasing levels of certainty based on the amount of data that is available and the supporting evidence. There are four levels of confidence: “rumour”, “possible”, “probable”, and “confirmed”. Any report assigned the level “rumour” is not published on the SSA dashboard. The criteria for determining the level of certainty of an attack is based on the sources of information available to triangulate the data.

Database: Reported attacks on health care are entered in the SSA web-enabled secure global database. Reports that have been verified and cleared by a designated personnel and the WHO Representative are further published on the SSA dashboard.

Find out more about the SSA data collection process and verification method on the SSA Methodology paper.

Data displayed in this dashboard is available for download using the Export to Excel button on the bottom right of the Recently Reported Attacks table. The data export function takes into account filters selected by the user.

Protecting the confidentiality of victims and contributors who share information about an attack is the main priority whenever data is made available on the public dashboard. The SSA does not collect any personal information about victims of an attack. Personal information about partners is collected as part of the verification process but is not shared publically. For security purposes, WHO Country Offices can request the withdrawal of data from the public dashboard at any time.

Find out more on our website: Q&A

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