WHO conducted global exercises with 15 countries and hundreds of epidemic experts
The WHO carried out an international virus outbreak simulation to test the work of the Global Health Emergency Corps — more than 350 experts participated in the exercise.
Photo: United States Mission Geneva, CC BY-ND 2.0
Over the course of two days, the World Health Organization conducted a large-scale exercise called Exercise Polaris, involving representatives from more than 15 countries and over 20 regional and international organizations, as reported on the WHO website.
The simulation aimed to test a new global coordination system for health emergency response — the Global Health Emergency Corps (GHEC).
The scenario simulated an outbreak of a fictional virus with international spread.
Participating countries, including Canada, Ukraine, Qatar, Germany, Colombia, and Saudi Arabia, practiced cooperation under real-world conditions — through national response centers, with information sharing and policy alignment.
Partners included organizations such as the Africa and European Centres for Disease Control, UNICEF, IOM, IFRC, and the GOARN network. More than 350 emergency experts were involved worldwide.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized that "no country can face a pandemic alone," and the exercise confirmed the need for coordinated international action.
Earlier, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) warned of the risk of new cases of a deadly strain of monkeypox in Europe and urged EU countries to strengthen preparedness measures to prevent its spread.
It was also reported that Hungarian authorities are considering the possibility of deliberate infection as the cause of a recent outbreak of a dangerous virus and do not rule out that it could be a biological attack.