The World Health Organisation (WHO) will hold a public health security exercise to check its readiness to respond to international public health threats.

The exercise will take place across several WHO regions, including country Offices and WHO Headquarters. It will also include the participation of the Ministry of Public Health in Thailand.

Such exercises to test emergency procedures are an essential means of ensuring that organizations such as the WHO, which operates out of more than 150 offices around the world, are ready to respond to emergencies.

Following a series of smaller-scale exercises after the coming into force of new WHO obligations under the International Health Regulations (IHR), the Public Health Security Exercise will test worldwide IHR alert and response procedures.

The IHR is an international treaty that is binding on 193 countries. It provides a global framework for preventing, detecting, assessing and supporting a co-ordinated response to events that may constitute a public health emergency of international concern.

The exercise will help WHO to identify opportunities for improvement in detecting and responding to real international public health threats.-TradeArabia News Service