NITI Aayog releases a report on future pandemic preparedness

NITI Aayog released an Expert Group report titled ‘Future Pandemic Preparedness and Emergency Response – A Framework for Action’. The expert group in the report has provided a blueprint for the country to prepare for any future public health emergency or pandemic and have a rapid response system in place.

The COVID-19 contagion is undoubtedly not the last pandemic. Given the unpredictably, changing planetary ecology, climate and human-animal-plant dynamics, new potentially, large-scale infectious threats to human health are inevitable. The WHO has warned the world that 75 per cent of future public health threats are likely to be zoonotic threats (which could be due to emerging, re-emerging and new pathogens).

In view of this, NITI Aayog constituted an Expert Group to prepare a framework for action for future pandemic preparedness and emergency response. The terms of reference for the group were to examine how COVID-19 was managed at the national and global levels, pick up the key learnings both from the success stories and challenges faced and assess the key gaps which need to be addressed to help us prepare and respond more efficiently and effectively in any future public health crisis.

In response to SARS-COV2, India made efforts to produce novel countermeasures and strengthened its research and development framework. These included mechanisms for funding of industry and researchers, establishment of shared resources; policy and guidelines for sharing of data, samples, regulation; public-private partnerships and global collaborations. India also invested in digital tools for pandemic response and vaccination, which helped manage the data of more than 1.4 billion population.

Learning from the experience of COVID-19, the experts realised that responding in the first 100 days of an outbreak is crucial for effective management. It is critical to be ready with strategies and counter-measures which can be made available within this period. This report provides an action plan for a 100-day response to any outbreak or pandemic. It outlines the detailed roadmap for preparedness and implementation, indicating the steps on how the outbreak can be tracked, tested, treated and managed through a well-developed framework. It suggests a structure that integrates and strengthens all existing components and builds the required components to deliver the outputs that meet the targets of a 100-day response mission.

The recommendations of the Pandemic Preparedness and Emergency Response Framework (PPER) are in four pillars:

1. Governance, legislation, finance and management
2. Data management, surveillance and early predictive warning, forecasting and modelling,
3. Research and innovation, manufacturing, infrastructure, capacity building/skilling
4. Partnership, community engagement including risk communication, private sector partnerships, and international collaborations

Preparing the proposed framework for action for future pandemic preparedness and emergency response involved consultations with over 60 experts and stakeholders, analysing the experience so far, examining national and global success stories and identifying key gaps that need attention. The stakeholder meetings were crucial and provided valuable insights for preparing the report. The consultations included national and international experts from public health, clinical medicine, epidemiology, microbiology, industry and academia, and senior government officials at the Centre and State level. These experts were at the frontline of the COVID-19 response at the local, national and international levels and played an important role in the policy, planning and implementation of the COVID response.

The expert group in the report has provided a blueprint for the country to prepare for any future public health emergency or pandemic and have a rapid response system. From examining the lessons learned and challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic to recommendations and a roadmap for governance and management of public health emergencies in the future, this report is a starting point for the country’s pandemic preparedness and prevention efforts.