US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Global Affairs
Loyce Pace, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, US Department of Health and Human Services, with Wenqing Zhang, director of the World Health Organization’s global influenza program, at the 75th World Health Assembly side event on the GISRS.
The United States of America (USA) congratulates the WHO, the Global Influenza Program and all partners of the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS) on the 70th anniversary of the GISRS and looks forward to another strong 100 years and beyond.
The US is proud to partner with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and WHO to host the GISRS side event at the 75th World Health Assembly. The side event was a great demonstration of the commitment to sustained and strong global surveillance of influenza and respiratory viruses. It was heartening to hear so many Member States sharing their experiences on how GISRS and flu preparedness efforts have helped improve capabilities to prepare for a broader pandemic.
The US hosts two WHO collaborating centers for influenza, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank WHO and all GISRS partners and supporters for their incredible work and achievements in influenza preparedness and global surveillance and response to COVID-19. Loyce Pace, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs at the US Department of Health and Human Services, said on our behalf at the side event of the 75th World Health Assembly: “Without GISRS, we would not be where we are in the global response to COVID-19 today. The strong response platform of influenza preparedness and response capacities – namely surveillance through GISRS – has played a key role in how we, as a global community, responded quickly to the pandemic in its early stages. We look forward to strengthening GISRS as we take the next steps in pandemic preparedness and response.”
The extraordinary achievements of the GISRS have been made possible by the dedicated commitment and support of WHO and Member States.
The US supports WHO’s approach to expanding to GISRS Plus, which will integrate broader respiratory disease surveillance into the proven global influenza network to further strengthen global prevention, preparedness, detection and response capacities.
