Weekly Epidemiological Record

The WER aims to rapidly disseminate epidemiological information about outbreaks of diseases under the International Health Regulations and about communicable diseases of public health importance. This includes emerging or re-emerging diseases.{{Cite web|title=WHO {{!}} The Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER)|url=http://www.who.int/wer/en/|access-date=24 October 2020|website=WHO}}{{cite book|last=Webber|first=Roger|title=Communicable Disease Epidemiology and Control: A Global Perspective|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wEn7dwvNRW4C&pg=PA284|edition=2nd|year=2005|publisher=CABI|isbn=0-85199-902-6|page=284|chapter=18. New and potential diseases}}

The Weekly Epidemiological Record was first published by a group of epidemiologists based in the Health Office of the League of Nations, in Geneva, on 1 April 1926, 20 years before the constitution of the World Health Organization was signed at the International Health Conference in New York. At the time, the WER's mission was to provide the world with information about disease threats that mostly travelled via the sea route: cholera, plague, smallpox, typhus and yellow fever.{{Cite journal|last=Kronfol|first=Nabil|date=2017|title=The World Health Organization Celebrates 90 Years of the Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER)|url=https://syndicateofhospitals.org.lb/Content/uploads/SyndicateMagazinePdfs/3761_34-37.pdf|journal=Human & Health|issue=38|pages=34}} The WER subsequently evolved into a WHO publication.{{Cite book|last1=Merson|first1=Michael H.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xEFD0sxFb0gC&q=first+published+in+Weekly+Epidemiological+Record&pg=PR20|title=Global Health: Diseases, Programs, Systems, and Policies|last2=Black|first2=Robert E.|last3=Mills|first3=Anne J.|date=2011-08-19|publisher=Jones & Bartlett Publishers|isbn=978-1-4496-5909-7|language=en}}

Until 1967, during efforts to eradicate smallpox, smallpox unit chief Donald Henderson noted that the array of data failed to provide a true picture of what was going on in different countries. He had himself been through and distributed more than 230 reports from mainly field staff, until it was suggested to him to publish the data where it could be shared in one place, in the WER, where it had a reach of some 5,000 people. Clear and concise data on the smallpox situation in each country subsequently appeared every three weeks in the WER between 1968 and 1979, during which time front line workers could appraise their own work and compare it with others.{{Cite journal|last=Breman|first=Joel G.|date=1 March 2017|title=Donald Ainslie (D. A.) Henderson, MD, MPH (1928–2016) Smallpox Eradication: Leadership and Legacy|journal=The Journal of Infectious Diseases|volume=215|issue=5|pages=673–676|doi=10.1093/infdis/jiw640|issn=0022-1899|pmc=5388283|pmid=28170040}}{{Cite book|last=Henderson|first=D. A.|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1u7Xw5i7Ky0C&pg=PA101|title=Smallpox: The Death of a Disease: The Inside Story of Eradicating a Worldwide Killer|date=2009|publisher=Prometheus Books|isbn=978-1-59102-722-5|pages=101|language=en|chapter=3. Creating a global program}}

Following reports of AIDS in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report in June 1981, the WHO collected and published emerging information on the disease in the WER.{{Cite book|last1=Chin|first1=James|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TGRISAaxYhYC&q=%22Weekly+Epidemiological+Record%22&pg=PA197|title=The AIDS Pandemic: The Collision of Epidemiology with Political Correctness|last2=Gillies|first2=Alan|date=2007|publisher=Radcliffe Publishing|isbn=978-1-84619-118-3|pages=197|language=en}}

File:Clinical presentation of skin NTDs tropicalmed-03-00120-g001.jpg

The WER is published by the WHO in English and French with the alternative title of the Relevé épidémiologique hebdomadaire. The bulk of its content relates to vaccination, epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response and treatment. It includes professional reviews of selected infectious diseases and global, regional and country epidemic events.{{cite book|last1=Tulchinsky|first1=Theodore H. |last2=Varavikova|first2=Elena A. |title=The New Public Health|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2hg2IxB9WngC|edition=third|year=2014|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=978-0-12-415766-8|page=134|chapter=3. Measuring, monitoring and evaluating the health of a population}}

Since 1998, the WER publishes the WHO policy relating to new vaccines.{{Cite book|last1=Kaufmann|first1=Stefan H. E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9BKPNnfHA_gC&q=%22Weekly+Epidemiological+Record%22&pg=PA269|title=The Grand Challenge for the Future: Vaccines for Poverty-Related Diseases from Bench to Field|last2=Lambert|first2=Paul-Henri|date=2005|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-7643-7175-3|language=en}} During the SARS outbreak in 2003, the WER reported epidemiological data on cases and by April 2003, more than 50% of the publication was dedicated to travel restrictions, reporting protocols and the transmission of SARS.{{Cite journal|last=Davis|first=Ian M.|title=SARS-CoV: Lessons learned; opportunities missed for SARS-CoV-2|url= |journal=Reviews in Medical Virology|year=2020|volume=31|issue=1|language=en|pages=e2152|doi=10.1002/rmv.2152|issn=1099-1654|pmc=7460959|pmid=32808446}} In May 2012, the WER published the WHO SAGE's (Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization) stance on the use of influenza vaccines, backed by an article which stated the WHO's update on including pregnant women as a priority.{{Cite web|title=Risk groups for severe influenza|url=https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/seasonal-influenza/prevention-and-control/vaccines/risk-groups|access-date=2020-10-29|website=European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control|date=20 October 2017 |language=en}} The Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS), that responds to vaccine safety issues, publishes its findings in the WER.{{Cite book|last1=Milligan|first1=Gregg N|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NvKyBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA331|title=Vaccinology: an essential guide|last2=Barrett|first2=A. D. T|date=2015|isbn=978-1-118-63652-7|page=331|publisher=John Wiley & Sons |language=en|oclc=881386962}}

It reports on neglected tropical diseases (NTD) in a systematic way.{{Cite journal|last1=Molyneux|first1=David H.|last2=Malecela|first2=Mwele N.|date=13 December 2011|title=Neglected Tropical Diseases and the Millennium Development Goals-why the "other diseases" matter: reality versus rhetoric|url= |journal=Parasites & Vectors|language=en|volume=4|issue=1|pages=234|doi=10.1186/1756-3305-4-234|issn=1756-3305|pmc=3271994|pmid=22166580 |doi-access=free }} These include schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, helminthiasis and the most common infectious cause of blindness, trachoma, which the WER reported as posing a threat to 136.9 million people globally in July 2020, a drop from 1.5 billion in 2002 and a reduction of 91%.{{Cite web|title=Weekly Epidemiological Record – specific references|url=http://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/preventive_chemotherapy/resources/wer/en/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030103816/https://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/preventive_chemotherapy/resources/wer/en/|archive-date=30 October 2020|access-date=30 October 2020|publisher=WHO}}{{Cite web|last=Sanicas|first=Melvin|date=5 October 2020|title=Myanmar eliminates trachoma, the world's leading infectious cause of blindness|url=https://www.zmescience.com/medicine/diseases-medicine/myanmar-eliminates-trachoma-95232/|access-date=30 October 2020|website=ZME Science|language=en-US}}{{Cite journal|date=24 July 2020|title=WHO Alliance for the Global Elimination of Trachoma by 2020: progress report, 2019 |journal=Weekly Epidemiological Record |volume=95 |issue=30 |pages=349–360|url=https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/333443/WER9530-eng-fre.pdf?ua=1}}

As of 2020 the WER is in its 95th volume.

It is free of charge and available electronically via the WHO's website.{{cite book|author1=Penny Webb|author2=Chris Bain|author3=Sandi Pirozzo|title=Essential Epidemiology: An Introduction for Students and Health Professionals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=svnPhkv7w_YC&pg=PA72|date=28 April 2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-54661-4|pages=72}} Previously it was distributed by airmail and telex.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8tURAQAAMAAJ&q=verified+%22Weekly+Epidemiological+Record%22|title=Official Records of the World Health Organization|date=1949|publisher=United Nations, World Health Organization, Interim Commission|language=en}}{{cite book|author1=John Ernsting|author2=P. F. King|title=Aviation Medicine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PGBsAAAAMAAJ|year=1988|publisher=Butterworths|isbn=978-0-407-01470-1}} It comes out on a Friday.{{Cite book|last1=Indrayan|first1=A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qvdE-tVFUn8C&q=%22Weekly+Epidemiological+Record%22&pg=PA53|title=Biostatistics for Medical, Nursing and Pharmacy Students|last2=Satyanarayana|first2=L.|date=2006|publisher=PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.|isbn=978-81-203-3054-2|language=en}}

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Category:World Health Organization

Category:Weekly journals

Category:Epidemiology journals