Latest DHMOSH Advisories for UN Healthcare Workers
Effective outbreak reporting and management are crucial for safeguarding the health of all UN staff and ensuring a swift, coordinated response to emerging threats.
Key Components of Outbreak Management
- Early Detection and Reporting: Timely identification and reporting of potential outbreaks are essential for early intervention and containment.
- Preparedness Planning: Developing and maintaining detailed preparedness plans ensures readiness for various outbreak scenarios and challenges.
- Response Coordination: Collaborating with health authorities, stakeholders, and community partners to implement effective response strategies and manage resources efficiently.
- Ongoing Monitoring: Continuously monitoring the outbreak situation to adapt response efforts, provide updates, and refine strategies as necessary.
Outbreak Preparedness Checklist
To support your preparedness and response efforts, we highly recommend using this generic Outbreak Preparedness Checklist, which you can use to adapt for any specific pathogen.
Utilizing this checklist will help you develop a robust preparedness plan, ensuring that you are well-equipped to handle any emergent outbreaks efficiently and protect the health of UN personnel in your duty station.
Reporting of Outbreaks to DHMOSH
Following lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and increased global travel, there is a need for enhanced infectious disease surveillance to mitigate the impacts of outbreaks such as Ebola, Zika, and new and emerging pathogens. The new e-Outbreak Reporting Tool (ORT) was developed by DHMOSH to enhance our collective capacity to track, manage, and prevent outbreaks of infectious diseases in field locations.
This new e-Outbreak Reporting Tool (ORT) is now deployed across all peacekeeping missions and duty stations with UN clinics with immediate effect.
All outbreaks, small or large, affecting UN personnel should be reported to DHMOSH through this portal.
Key features of the e-Outbreak Reporting Tool include:
- Real-Time Reporting: The tool enables all UN health care personnel in field locations to report suspected outbreaks of infectious diseases in real-time, allowing for immediate response and intervention.
- Data Analysis: The tool enables the aggregation and electronic analysis of outbreak data, facilitating the early detection of outbreaks and trends in disease transmission.
- Reporting: The tool supports seamless reporting of outbreaks to your UN senior management, enhancing communication, coordination, and collaboration in outbreak response efforts.
For Usage of the e-ORT, please see below:
- You can access the online version of the e-Outbreak Reporting Tool (ORT) at:
- You can also use your phone or iPad. See Guide for accessing the e-Outbreak Reporting tool (ORT) on your mobile device.
- If you need the tool but do not have access, please contact dos-dhmosh-public-health@un.org.
- For an online walk through guide on how to use the tool, please see the Step-by-step Guide: e-Outbreak Reporting Tool (ORT).
- For a presentation by Dr Tan about the e-ORT, including information about when you should use it and in what scenario, please see the DHMOSH Global Webinar: “Introduction to DHMOSH’s e-Outbreak Response Tool (ORT)"