Standards Development

Scope

This document establishes the reference standards portfolio (RSP) need to be considered to equip public authorities and healthcare organizations for successful healthcare management during pandemics.

Purpose

With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to stay prepared for possible pandemics and to respond promptly to outbreaks of infectious diseases. Diseases like COVID-19 spread rapidly and their course is difficult to predict, thus resulting in a high number of infections. Without an established social system capable of rapidly responding to pandemics, human casualties and economic damage will be inevitable.

A country's healthcare system will be paralyzed if it cannot meet surge demands for personnel and other resources, such as those experienced with a pandemic. NPIs are actions, apart from getting vaccinated and taking medicine, which people and communities can take to help slow the spread of illnesses like pandemic.

1 Non-pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) are among the best ways of controlling pandemic when vaccines are not yet available.

Therefore, proven NPIs need to be formalized in standard way. During a pandemic, standards can play an important role in

1) improving and standardizing the response to such emergency,

2) enabling rapid implementation of necessary measures when and where they are needed, and

3) upgrading existing practices based on collective experience. Standards can provide common shared protocols that describe procedures in relevant detail.

They contribute to a sustainable society. Standards should be based on an effective disease prevention and control model and should be shared with the international community.