WHO Meeting on the Update of the Public Health Research Agenda for Influenza

Aug 27, 2024

Communicable Diseases

WHO Meeting on the Update of the Public Health Research Agenda for Influenza

The 2009 influenza pandemic identified some crucial limitations in addressing the public health impact of influenza disease due to gaps of understanding of the virus and its effect on individuals and populations. To bridge these gaps, WHO convened a global consultation and published the Public Health Research Agenda for Influenza 2009. In 2017, an update was published after extensive consultations, identifying high-priority areas in influenza research to reduce the burden of seasonal epidemic influenza, and the risk and impact of pandemic influenza.

The 2017 research agenda defined five areas of work:

Stream 1. Reducing the risk of emergence of pandemic influenza

Stream 2. Limiting the spread of pandemic, zoonotic and seasonal epidemic influenza

Stream 3. Minimizing the impact of pandemic, zoonotic and seasonal epidemic influenza

Stream 4. Optimizing the treatment of patients

Stream 5. Promoting the development and application of modern public health tools

Sub-stream 5A: New Technologies in Public Health, and Mathematical Modelling
Sub-stream 5B: Social Media Tools and Risk Communication

The recent COVID-19 pandemic, although due to a non-influenza virus, has broadened knowledge in areas of transmission, pharmaceutical interventions, and non-pharmaceutical measures. Meanwhile influenza virus has been constantly evolving causing epidemics in humans, spilling to new species, including mammals, such as the recent avian influenza outbreak in dairy cattle, and imposing pandemic threat to humans.

In this context, there is a pressing need to update the WHO Public Health Research Agenda for Influenza. To address the need, in early 2024 WHO established virtual work streams corresponding to the above defined Streams.