Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response
Summary
Public health emergency preparedness and response comprises the systems, strategies and resources that governments, communities and health organisations develop to anticipate, manage and recover from crises that threaten population health. This field embraces an all-hazards approach, addressing natural disasters, infectious disease outbreaks, chemical or radiological incidents and other emerging threats. Core components include risk assessment, surveillance, governance and leadership, workforce training, logistics and supply-chain management, communication and community engagement. Emphasis has shifted towards building resilience through integrated frameworks that recognise the complex adaptive nature of health systems, ensuring ethical decision-making, equity of access and protection of vulnerable populations. Preparedness involves pre-event planning, stockpiling and exercises; response focuses on rapid activation of incident command structures, case finding and containment measures; recovery seeks to restore services, evaluate performance and implement lessons learned.
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Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in public health emergency preparedness and response across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP): The capability of a public health system to prevent, protect against, quickly respond to, and recover from health emergencies.
All-hazards approach: A preparedness strategy that addresses a broad array of potential emergencies—biological, natural, technological—through common capacities and systems.
Resilience: The ability of health systems and communities to absorb disturbance, adapt to challenges and maintain core functions during and after emergencies.
Incident Command System (ICS): A standardised hierarchical structure used to coordinate response activities, roles and communication across agencies and jurisdictions.
Surveillance: The continuous, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health data essential for planning, implementing and evaluating public health practice.
References
- Public health emergency preparedness for infectious disease emergencies: a scoping review of recent evidence. BMC Public Health (2023).
- Public health emergency preparedness: a framework to promote resilience. BMC Public Health (2018).
- Are we prepared? The development of performance indicators for public health emergency preparedness using a modified Delphi approach. PLOS ONE (2019).
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