Early warning, alert and response to acute public health events in refugee-hosting countries

This document serves as an advocacy and quick assessment tool for public health responders in refugee-hosting countries to evaluate and strengthen EWAR capacities in two principal settings: 1) refugee reception centres or temporary shelter facilities, taken together as ‘high occupancy settings’, where refugees congregate overnight in close conditions, and 2) the community, or settings with living conditions similar to those of other residents. It does not intend to propose that new structures be established in parallel to replicate already well-functioning systems, but rather to look at opportunities to strengthen core capacities and ensure epidemic threats are appropriately monitored to allow for timely detection and response – especially in scenarios where new health care settings may need to be assessed, scaled up and linked to already established systems.