The Pivotal Role of Innovative Diagnostics in Pandemic Preparedness & Response and Health System Strengthening

A WORLD HEALTH SUMMIT SIDE-EVENT

SUNDAY, 16th OCTOBER 2022, 11 AM – 1.30 PM
1ST FLOOR, ROOM BRAZZAVILLE,HOTEL BERLIN CENTRAL DISTRICT
STAUFFENBERGSTRAßE 26, 10785 BERLIN

Programme

Diagnostics and testing play a key role at every stage of a pandemic – from outbreak detection and containment to the development and deployment of treatments and vaccines. Testing, in particular, has been a critical part of the comprehensive approach to defeat Covid-19, as the early detection of the virus helped to mitigate the spread and magnitude of the pandemic. Without testing, we cannot track or contain the spread of the virus, address urgent clinical needs, test the efficacy of vaccines, or detect the emergence of new variants. As such, the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the pivotal role of innovative diagnostics for global pandemic preparedness and response.

While innovative diagnostics were largely neglected in the debates around health systems strength-ening and delivering health outcomes in the pre-pandemic era, it has since proven useful time and again – as demonstrated during the rise in Monkeypox infections. After all, the earlier diseases are diagnosed, data analysed, collected, and ideally shared, the faster countermeasures can be taken.

FIND, the global alliance for diagnostics advocates for the development, evaluation and implemen-tation of diagnostic tests, making it a key pillar for the ACT Accelerator’s critical work towards ena-bling equitable access to Covid-19 tests. Launched in April 2020, the ACT-Accelerator brought together several Geneva-based actors (and beyond) in a concerted effort – to accelerate the devel-opment, production and distribution of tests, treatments, and vaccines – to end the pandemic as quickly as possible.

As the pandemic is far from over and other global health threats (AMR, HIV/AIDS, NTDs) remain relevant and urgent, it could certainly be helpful to extend the mandate of the ACT-A to continue its work improving health systems at a global level, while placing research in innovative diagnostics at the centre of future pandemic response and prevention.

Working jointly on a WHS side-event, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, the GHA – German Health Alliance and FIND seek to explore some of these debates and discuss the following issues:

• lessons in diagnostic development and uptake from the HIV/AIDS, Ebola and Covid-19 pandemics;
• raising awareness on the importance of testing at community level; and
• finding ways to integrate diagnostics as part of an overall crisis response system andmeans of implementation in national systems and global frameworks.

Participation by invitation only. If you are interested, please contact boxler@gha.health

Participation is only possible if you already have a WHS registration.