Pandemics are global crises that transcend borders, triggering widespread illness, death, and potentially devastating disruptions to economies, societies, and political systems. These outbreaks expose vulnerabilities in health systems, underscoring the urgent need for robust mechanisms for preparedness and response.

To strengthen global health security, the World Health Organization (WHO) International Health Regulations (IHR) provides a framework to help countries prevent, detect, and respond to health emergencies. Under the IHR, member states regularly assess their capacities through mandatory State Party Annual Reports (SPAR) and voluntary Joint External Evaluations (JEE). These assessments inform the development of National Action Plans for Health Security (NAPHS) —comprehensive, five-year strategies that engage governments, societies, and multiple sectors through a One Health approach. By addressing critical gaps and enhancing coordination, NAPHS serve as a vital blueprint for resilience, ensuring countries can contain emerging threats and safeguard public health.

Countries have implemented International Health Regulations (IHR), National Action Plans for Health Security (NAPHS) and other health security strategies for years, yet recent pandemics—including SARS-CoV-1 (2002-2004), H1N1 (2009), the West Africa Ebola outbreak (2013-2016), COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2), and Mpox—have exposed glaring disparities in national capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to these threats.

Health security action plans such as NAPHS provide a comprehensive, standardized approach to strengthening health security, with progress reflected in State Party Annual Reports (SPAR) and Joint External Evaluations (JEE). Despite World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on NAPHS development and implementation, there remains limited publicly available information on how countries are translating these plans into action.

This Research Topic aims to bridge that gap by encouraging countries to share innovative strategies they have adopted in developing and implementing their health security action plans such as NAPHS. By fostering knowledge exchange and cross-country learning, this initiative seeks to accelerate IHR implementation, enhance global health security, and improve preparedness for future pandemics and public health emergencies.

Original articles are welcome from any of the following sub themes (singly or in combination):
• Regional, multi-country or country specific analysis of the strategic and annual operational planning process for health security such as NAPHS;
• Regional, multi-country or country specific analysis of strategies for multi-sectoral coordination of health security action plan development, implementation, and/or assessment;
• Funding strategies for health security plans implementation (such as NAPHS), including domestic resource mobilization;
• Monitoring and evaluation strategies for health security plans implementation, such as NAPHS;
• Implementation of health security plans at the sub-national level;
• Impact of health security plans implementation as measured by SPAR, JEE, etc.

Impact

Frontiers in Tropical Diseases

Disease Prevention and Control Policy