Informing the pandemic response: the role of the WHO's COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update.
Juniorcaius IkejezieAlessandro MigliettaIngrid Hammermeister NezuSandra AdeleMelissa M HigdonDaniel FeikinHarsh LataSamuel MesfinFriday IdokoKazuki ShimizuAyse AcmaSamuel MoroHoma Attar CohenMary Anissa SinnathambyJames Richard OtienoYosef TemreBrian Ngongheh AjongBernadette Basuta MirembeTondri Noe GuinkoVaishali SodagarCraig SchultzJoao MuiangaStéphane De BarrosAura Rocio Escobar Corado WaeberYeowon JinAnahi Rico ChinchillaYurie IzawaShagun KhareMarcia PooleNyka AlexanderSilviu CiobanuTshewang DorjiMahmoud HassanMasaya KatoTamano MatsuiOpeayo OgundiranRichard G PebodyManilay PhengxayAna Riviere-CinnamondBlanche Johanna Greene-CramerEmilie PeronBrett Nicholas ArcherLorenzo SubissiZyleen Alnashir KassamaliAdedoyin Awofisayo-OkuyeluOlivier le Polain de WarouxEsther HamblionBoris Igor PavlinOliver MorganIbrahima Socé FallMaria D Van KerkhoveAbdi MahamudPublished in: BMJ global health (2024)
On 31 December 2019, the Municipal Health Commission of Wuhan, China, reported a cluster of atypical pneumonia cases. On 5 January 2020, the WHO publicly released a Disease Outbreak News (DON) report, providing information about the pneumonia cases, implemented response interventions, and WHO's risk assessment and advice on public health and social measures. Following 9 additional DON reports and 209 daily situation reports, on 17 August 2020, WHO published the first edition of the COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update (WEU). On 1 September 2023, the 158th edition of the WEU was published on WHO's website, marking its final issue. Since then, the WEU has been replaced by comprehensive global epidemiological updates on COVID-19 released every 4 weeks. During the span of its publication, the webpage that hosts the WEU and the COVID-19 Operational Updates was accessed annually over 1.4 million times on average, with visits originating from more than 100 countries. This article provides an in-depth analysis of the WEU process, from data collection to publication, focusing on the scope, technical details, main features, underlying methods, impact and limitations. We also discuss WHO's experience in disseminating epidemiological information on the COVID-19 pandemic at the global level and provide recommendations for enhancing collaboration and information sharing to support future health emergency responses.
Keyphrases
- coronavirus disease
- public health
- sars cov
- health information
- healthcare
- risk assessment
- mental health
- respiratory syndrome coronavirus
- physical activity
- social media
- human health
- emergency department
- global health
- adverse drug
- heavy metals
- intensive care unit
- electronic health record
- clinical practice
- systematic review
- meta analyses
- respiratory failure