Identifying and fighting disease outbreaks worldwide - new WHO collaborating centre at Robert Koch Institute

The Robert Koch Institute is sharing its experience in international health protection by hosting a collaborating centre for the World Health Organization’s network, the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN). “In a globalised world, pathogens can spread quickly. That’s why collaboration through networking is indispensable for global health protection,” emphasises Lothar H. Wieler, President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). The official opening of the new collaborating centre is taking place at 5.30 pm on 24 June 2019 at the RKI in Berlin. It will be attended, amongst others, by the GOARN project manager, Pat Drury, and Dorit Nitzan, Acting Regional Emergency Director of the European Region. Media representatives are welcome to attend this meeting of international health protection partners (registration: presse@rki.de).

The global GOARN partnership connects institutions in more than 75 countries and pools resources for the rapid identification and handling of disease outbreaks. It is coordinated by the WHO. In its role as WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Outbreak Alert and Response – GOARN, RKI will deliver expert advice to the World Health Organization, support the implementation of GOARN projects, devise and test training activities, foster knowledge-sharing and help to continue developing the GOARN Network. The RKI regularly deploys staff abroad in the framework of GOARN.

“But the countries affected also need support in building efficient health systems so that outbreaks of infection can be avoided or quickly contained,” Wieler stresses. From 12 to 19 June 2019, the RKI President visited long-running joint research projects in Nigeria and the Ivory Coast and discussed opportunities for reinforcing local health systems with public health experts. He also signed collaboration agreements, including one with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control especially designed to improve local laboratory capacity. Furthermore, since 2018, Wieler has been a member of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Infectious Hazards (STAG-IH) which advises the WHO on infectious hazards that may pose a threat to global health security.

In recent years, the RKI has continuously expanded its expertise in international health protection, pooling and reinforcing its efforts at the beginning of 2019 in a Centre for International Health Protection (ZIG). In 2016, the WHO had appointed the RKI as a Collaborating Centre for Emerging Infections and Biological Threats. It also plays a leading role in the Federal Ministry of Health’s Global Health Protection Programme that helps to bolster capacity in partner countries in outbreak and crisis situations as well as their health systems, to implement international health regulations and to fight antimicrobial resistance. The RKI is, moreover, the national coordinator for deployments under the WHO’s Emergency Medical Teams Initiative (EMT).

Additional information:
WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Outbreak Alert and Response at RKI online: www.rki.de/who-cc-goarn-en

Dorit Nitzan's position within the WHO has been corrected later.