SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being | SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Institutions: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare | Ministry of Home Affairs
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released its Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources (EIOS) Strategy 2024-2026, designed to make epidemic intelligence more sustainable, adaptive, and scalable. The strategy outlines improvements in technology and platform capabilities, expanding data coverage beyond text-based sources to include contextual and local inputs. It also emphasises decentralising implementation to increase country-level ownership, enhancing user onboarding and training, and fostering stakeholder engagement. In addition, WHO has set out governance structures, key performance indicators, and long-term resourcing plans to ensure sustained impact.
Policy relevance: this approach directly addresses global gaps in early detection of outbreaks. By strengthening event-based surveillance and open-source intelligence, the strategy aims to reduce delays in response that cost lives and economies. For India, it underscores the importance of investing in interoperable surveillance systems, digital infrastructure, and workforce capacity, while linking health surveillance with disaster management and other non-health sectors.
Follow the full report here: https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/eios/eios-strategy-vs_07-id_final.pdf?download=true