An evaluation of emergency guidelines issued by the World Health Organization in response to four infectious disease outbreaks.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The production of high-quality guidelines in response to public health emergencies poses challenges for the World Health Organization (WHO). The urgent need for guidance and the paucity of structured scientific data on emerging diseases hinder the formulation of evidence-informed recommendations using standard methods and procedures.

Objectives

In the context of the response to recent public health emergencies, this project aimed to describe the information products produced by WHO and assess the quality and trustworthiness of a subset of these products classified as guidelines.

Methods

We selected four recent infectious disease emergencies: outbreaks of avian influenza A-H1N1 virus (2009) and H7N9 virus (2013), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus

SUBMITTER: Norris SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5976182 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature