The World Health Organisation (WHO) has launched a five-year strategy for its Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence to detect and understand emerging health threats within 24 hours of their appearance by 2030.

In a statement on Monday, WHO said the strategy aimed at equipping every country with the capabilities needed to rapidly identify and understand emerging health threats.

“Strengthening rapid detection is a cornerstone of global health security, helping countries contain outbreaks before they escalate into larger epidemics or spread internationally,” the organisation stated.

The WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who spoke at the opening of the World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany, noted that the new strategy was designed to unite governments towards responding to health threats early.

“Five years after its establishment, the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence has become an integral part of the global health security system.

“Its new strategy charts a clear path towards 2030, uniting governments and partners around a shared goal: a world in which every country can rapidly respond to health threats before they turn into major crises,” Mr Ghebreyesus said.

Under the next five-year strategy, WHO said it would build on the achievements and deliver its work through five priority initiatives, including epidemic intelligence from open sources, the international pathogen surveillance network, modelling and data science, collaborative surveillance initiative and the digital enablers for public health intelligence initiative.

The announcement by WHO coincided with the UN’s endorsement of landmark declaration on pandemic preparedness, seeking to prevent future health crises.