Introduction a study of the politics of surveillance and responses to disease outbreaks

This chapter analyzes the role that World Health Organization (WHO) has played in global disease surveillance to date. It examines this through three key stages of its development: the use of Global Public Health Intelligence Network (GPHIN) as part of the surveillance infrastructure; the shifting responsibilities of Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN); and finally the waning of both these initiatives, and by extension the prominence of WHO, in disease surveillance and control. GPHIN is a disease early-warning system that seeks to alert its subscribers to a wide range of information about potential outbreaks as close to real-time as possible. The GOARN is a network established by WHO in 1997 and formalized in 2000. Once GOARN receives outbreak related information, it is then analysed to assess the probable timeframe, mortality, risk of economic loss, potential for affected vulnerable populations, capacity of health systems in the region, and implications for international health security.