International Consultant - Managing Seasonal, Zoonotic and Pandemic Influenza by Strengthening Surveillance

Overview

Provide specialized technical expertise to countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region for managing seasonal, zoonotic, and pandemic influenza by strengthening surveillance, monitoring, and data utilization.

Tasks Summary

• Provide technical guidance to EMR countries in managing seasonal, zoonotic and pandemic influenza by strengthening surveillance, monitoring and data utilization.
• Provide high level advisory and technical guidance to national teams for calculating baseline and threshold values using the updated Pandemic Influenza Severity Assessment (PISA) methodology.
• Build and enhance countries’ capacities to calculate baseline and threshold values for influenza disease burden estimation and publish their findings.
• Provide technical guidance to countries in estimating the burden averted through vaccination.
• Provide technical expertise to countries in the EMR to strengthen, monitor, and evaluate surveillance systems for influenza, COVID-19, MERSCoV, RSV, zoonotic influenza, and other unusual respiratory events.
• Provide technical expertise and lead national counterparts in the development and revision of data collection protocols for respiratory disease surveillance.
• Lead and guide the regional consolidation of epidemiologic and virologic surveillance data on influenza, COVID19, RSV, zoonotic influenza, and other unusual respiratory events.
• Develop and facilitate pandemic preparedness and response evaluations, focusing on zoonotic influenza.
• Facilitate technical cooperation with National Influenza Centers; promote the creation of new National Influenza Centers and analyse and evaluate regional data entered into EMFLU-2, FluNet.
• Lead the preparation of regional EMR Respiratory Virus Activity Bulletin, newsletters, and meetings on zoonotic influenza and other unusual respiratory diseases.
• Develop, expand and strengthen strategic partnerships and networks, throughout the Region, related to influenza and emerging respiratory infections.

Experience Requirements

• At least 5 to 10 years of progressive experience in public health, epidemiology, or infectious disease surveillance, with a strong focus on influenza or respiratory disease surveillance.
• Demonstrated expertise in analysing surveillance data, calculating epidemiological thresholds, and applying severity assessment frameworks (such as PISA) in national or regional contexts.
• Proven experience in developing and delivering training and capacity-building workshops, preferably in the EMR or similar settings.
• Track record of publications in disease burden estimation, vaccine effectiveness and vaccine impact.

Qualification Requirements

Advanced university degree (Master’s level or above) in public health, epidemiology, biostatistics or data science.

Other Details

Languages Required: English expert level required

Languages Preferred: French is an asset

Contract Duration: 3 Months

Work Modality: Virtual and travel will be required for one month to the Regional Office to work closely with the Responsible Officer

Remuneration: Remuneration Band level B- USD – Daily range USD 350 – 499, Monthly range USD 7,000 - 9,980