The World Health Organization has made the University of Nebraska Medical Center a partner in its Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN).
GOARN, created in 2000, is a worldwide collaboration of more than 300 institutions and networks that react rapidly to outbreaks of international importance to cut response time to days and hours.
UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., said that UNMC's stellar performance in caring for Ebola patients caught WHO's attention.
"Awareness of UNMC's expertise in public health emergencies and global mission has greatly increased. Membership in GOARN is another reflection of the increasing prominence of UNMC in emerging infectious diseases and global health," he said.
"Partnership in GOARN provides UNMC the opportunity to provide technical assistance to WHO for global public health emergencies and access to detailed and timely information on public health events being monitored by WHO worldwide," said Ali S. Khan, M.D., M.P.H., dean of the UNMC College of Public Health.
"There is growing recognition that an outbreak anywhere can potentially represent an emergency of international public health concern everywhere. We are now part of a network of experts that can rapidly respond to an outbreak anywhere in the world."
GOARN's primary aims are to:
- Assist countries with disease control efforts by ensuring rapid and appropriate technical support to affected populations.
- Investigate and characterize events and assess risks of rapidly emerging epidemic disease threats.
- Support national outbreak preparedness by ensuring that responses contribute to sustained containment of epidemic threats.
Since 2000, WHO and GOARN have responded to more than 50 events worldwide with more than 400 experts providing field support to some 40 countries.
GOARN has helped build consensus on guiding principles for international outbreak alert and response, established operational protocols to standardize field logistics, security and communications and streamlined administrative processes to ensure rapid mobilization of field teams.
WHO also has developed its capacity at all levels, with regional and sub-regional response teams initiating field operations with GOARN partners.
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