WHO Names JHU Center for Health Security a Collaborating Centre

BALTIMORE, MD, November 6, 2019 – The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security has been officially designated as a “Collaborating Centre for Global Health Security” by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The Center for Health Security is part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Collaborating Centres are institutions designated by the WHO Director-General as part of an international network to carry out activities and research to support WHO programs. The practice of using national institutions to facilitate the work of WHO dates back to the Second World Health Assembly in 1949, which recognized that “research in the field of health is best advanced by assisting, coordinating and making use of the activities of existing institutions.”

WHO has designated many Collaborating Centres around the world with specific areas of work, including occupational health, nutrition, mental health, communicable diseases, biosafety and biosecurity, and health technologies. The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security has now become only the second WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Health Security and the first in the PAHO region.

Tom Inglesby, MD, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, expressed his delight at this designation, stating, “We are honored to be considered part of the prestigious WHO and PAHO Collaborating Centre network. Our Center has worked closely with WHO over the past few years, supporting a variety of their activities in the field of global health security. We admire WHO’s commitment to strengthening global health security, and we look forward to furthering our work with them in this important area.”

As part of their responsibilities as a Collaborating Centre, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security will:

• provide research and analysis for WHO on detection, preparedness, and response to natural and deliberate threats to global health security;
• support WHO in assessing the possible impact of ongoing developments in science and technology on global health security;
• assist WHO in the evaluation of human health risks associated with deliberate events and other threats and support the development of appropriate policies and practices to strengthen health security; and
• support WHO’s efforts to increase national capacities of Member States in their commitments to the International Health Regulations through the development of tools and relevant reports.

The Center for Health Security joins six other centers in Johns Hopkins University that hold WHO and PAHO Collaborating Centre status in various health fields.