Tool for Influenza Pandemic Risk Assessment


The Tool for Influenza Pandemic Risk Assessment , is a risk assessment tool developed by the World Health Organization’s Global Influenza Program. It was created with the purpose to provide a standardized and transparent approach to support the risk assessment of influenza viruses with pandemic potential. The tool was modelled after the Influenza Risk Assessment Tool, developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Approach

TIPRA asks a risk question about the pandemic likelihood and impact of an influenza virus in order to support hazard assessment. The tool helps identifying gaps and steering actions including research and observation by facilitating synthesis of current evidence. Outputs incorporate an outline of the degree of hazard presented by the virus, thus enabling a comparison between viruses. As it centers around surveying the hazard related with a particular virus, outputs can be used to feed into other more comprehensive risk assessments that take into consideration contextual and exposure issues.

Motivation

According to WHO, the objectives of TIPRA are to:
TIPRA is aimed at experts ranging from a variety of disciplines, including clinicians, ecologists, epidemiologists, immunologists, molecular virologists, pharmacologists, phylogeneticists, veterinarians and virologists.