Pandemics have the potential to destabilize countries or regions. They cause large surges in the numbers of people requiring medical treatment, temporarily overwhelming health services. High rates of worker absenteeism can interrupt essential services, such as law enforcement, transport and communications, disrupting systems on which people depend for their security, livelihoods and welfare and giving rise to humanitarian crises.
Pandemics have happened before. In the 20th century, three pandemics occurred: “Spanish influenza” in 1918, “Asian influenza” in 1957, and “ Hong Kong influenza” in 1968. The 1918 pandemic killed an estimated 45 million people worldwide – more than all the victims of World War I – and was one of the deadliest disease events in human history. The risk of a pandemic is particularly high now because of avian influenza. Since 2003, the H5N1 “bird flu” virus has caused devastation amongst poultry flocks in many countries around the world. In a number of cases, humans have also become infected through close contact with birds. If the virus were to develop the capacity to be transmitted from human to human, we would face a dangerous human flu pandemic.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) established Pandemic Influenza Contingency (PIC) to support efforts of the UN, national governments and the humanitarian community to be prepared to face an influenza pandemic. While the World Health Organisation (WHO) leads health preparedness efforts, OCHA/PIC promotes and supports preparedness in non-health sectors.
ROMENACA includes a PIC Regional Planning Officer and a Planning Analyst whose mission is to: 1) improve the readiness of UN Country Teams to cope with a sudden-onset pandemic; 2) assist national authorities (through UN Country Teams) to improve the preparedness of their country beyond the health sector; and 3) help national actors and their international partners to prepare for delivery of humanitarian assistance in a pandemic.
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Activities
- Assess UN and national pandemic readiness;
- Maintain an on-line ‘tracker’ tool to map preparedness indicators and support in-country contingency planning efforts;
- Develop contacts with regional political institutions and other appropriate partners in order to raise awareness and advocate for multi-sectoral pandemic preparedness; <
- Undertake missions to support contingency planning and simulations of national and UN plans;
- Assist UN Country Teams and national authorities in building pandemic preparedness plans and strategies into existing disaster preparedness and response mechanisms and disaster
- management structures;
- Identify ‘best practices’ and share experiences between countries;
- Coordinate relevant regional inter-agency initiatives.