Dr Sharon Salmon1, Ms Renee Christensen2
1 World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific, salmons@who.int
2 World Health Organization Headquarters, christensenr@who.int
Established in April 2000, the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) is a global technical partnership, established by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a key mechanism to engage the resources of technical agencies beyond the United Nations for rapid identification, confirmation and response to public health emergencies of international importance. GOARN currently comprises over 270 technical institutions and networks across the globe. The main objective of the network is to provide technical support to WHO Member States experiencing a human health emergency due to various threats including disease outbreaks, food safety, chemical toxins, zoonosis, natural and manmade disasters etc. Beyond providing this direct assistance to public health emergency response, GOARN Partners engage in the Network in several additional ways, including outbreak response training, operational research, networking and collaboration.
This session will provide participants with an overview of GOARN including priority work areas and how to join this growing global network.