WHO has published a pandemic checklist as a tool to help national authorities develop or revise their pandemic plans. It is specifically designed for respiratory pathogen pandemics, including those caused by influenza viruses and coronaviruses. It presents priority actions that countries can take now in order to be better prepared for a pandemic.
Developing or updating pandemic preparedness plans, including for influenza pandemics, is an essential task. WHO, with support from countries and experts globally, regularly updates its range of guidance and other resources to support countries in their preparedness activities for influenza and other respiratory pathogens. To help countries determine key actions that should be taken to prepare for a respiratory pathogen pandemic, a checklist was published in 2023 .
The checklist, which adopts a pathogen-specific, respiratory and an all-hazards approach, is a tool recommended to be applied by national authorities in conjunction with Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats (PRET) Module 1: Planning for respiratory pathogen pandemics .
To make pandemic planning efficient and integrated, the checklist focuses on similar capacities that can be leveraged for different respiratory pathogens of pandemic potential, including the threat of a novel respiratory pathogen X. The checklist also includes specific actions for key respiratory viruses identified as being of heightened pandemic risk, particularly for influenza viruses and coronaviruses. For example, for influenza this includes participation in the expanded Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (eGISRS), development of influenza-specific case management guidelines, and considerations when switching from seasonal to pandemic vaccines. Such pathogen-specific planning is an essential component when developing a pandemic plan, and WHO recommends that pathogen-specific information is included when relevant.
Furthermore, the pandemic checklist outlines priority all-hazard actions from the WHO Benchmarks for Strengthening Health Emergency Capacities and complementarily, respiratory-focused actions have been included in the recently updated online International Health Regulations (IHR) benchmark portal . Countries can therefore include pandemic checklist actions in different national multi-hazard or health security plans as suits the country context.
Many Member States globally are engaged in developing and updating their respiratory pandemic plans, with eight having done so in 2023 (according to Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework Partnership Contribution indicator baseline data).
This year, national pandemic preparedness workshops and simulation exercises, partly supported by the PIP Framework Partnership Contribution, have provided opportunities for self-assessment of national capacities using the checklist, with the identification of gaps and actions required. The checklist can be used early in the pandemic plan drafting process – as was the case in Namibia – but may also be used to assess newly developed or existing plans to ensure important actions have not been missed (an approach taken by several countries in Europe and the Americas).
Using the checklist to develop or revise national pandemic plans, in conjunction with PRET Module 1, ensures that capacity gains made during the COVID-19 pandemic are sustained and that functional capacities are regularly reviewed and strengthened for future respiratory events, including for influenza pandemics. Stakeholders need to ensure that identified priority actions start to be implemented now ahead of the next pandemic.
The checklist is available in all UN languages and Portuguese. Online and in-person training packages for different audiences, which will include orientation to, and the application of, the pandemic checklist, are currently under development and are anticipated to be available before the end of 2024.
