AIIMS-Delhi designated as WHO network site for pandemic preparedness
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New Delhi (PTI): AIIMS, Delhi has now become one of the WHO global network sites for pandemic preparedness and emergency response under the Global Influenza Surveillance And Response System (GISRS).
The World Health Organisation (WHO), during the Covid crisis, had started the global network of Unity Study sites which conducts investigations and studies rapidly in the event of a pandemic, or epidemic of an emerging or re-emerging pathogen.
The network will ensure response readiness for rapid evaluation of critical tools to supplement routine surveillance systems to address specific questions, particularly in the early stages of a pandemic or an epidemic, Dr Puneet Misra, Professor of Community Medicine at AIIMS, said.
Unity Studies are standardization research protocol developed by WHO that may be implemented during inter pandemic period as well as any future pandemic of respiratory pathogen, Dr Misra explained.
The Unity Study protocols aim to rapidly gather evidence to facilitate evidence-based public health policy. These protocols advocate standardized and uniform method of data collection on epidemiological exposure, and collection of biological specimens, he said.
"This approach permits rapid sharing of data in a format that can be easily aggregated, tabulated and analysed across many different settings globally for timely public health response," Dr Misra said.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a global public health emergency, he said.
Although the health systems had the experience of dealing with infectious outbreaks and epidemics in past, but at time of Covid, WHO realised the need of generic protocols for standardised data for public health measures at global level to make processes and systems in place to deal with a public health emergency of such magnitude and be alert for any future outbreak, Dr Misra underlined.
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that the unity protocol studies added value, and that they could be implemented both in high as well as in low-to-middle income countries.
Within the WHO South-East Asia Region (SEARO), which comprises 11 member countries, only five sites have been selected for establishing Unity Study site.
"AIIMS, Delhi, is privileged and proud to be one of the five sites designated as network site for Pandemic Preparedness and Emergency Response from the World Health Organization under the leadership of Dr Puneet Misra, Professor of Community Medicine," a statement issued by the hospital said.
Importantly, this centre will continue to function even in non-pandemic periods, contributing to broader public health actions, capacity building, and preparedness activities, ensuring that the systems remain robust and ready to respond effectively whenever needed, the statement added.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
