A WHO mission to strengthen influenza and acute respiratory infections surveillance was conducted in Turkmenistan

A WHO mission to strengthen influenza and acute respiratory infections surveillance was conducted in Turkmenistan
19 15.10.2025

The WHO Country Office in Turkmenistan conducted a technical mission to strengthen surveillance of influenza and acute respiratory infections (ARI). This was reported by the news website Turkmenportal.

The mission included WHO Regional Office for Europe respiratory virus surveillance technical specialist James Edward Fielding and WHO experts Kirill Stolyarov and Daria Danilenko.

As part of the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Partnership Contribution, the experts provided advice and technical support to national partners, assessed the implementation of the updated surveillance protocol, including epidemiological and virological monitoring, as well as data collection and analysis systems.

During the visit, a workshop was held on building national capacity in influenza and ARI surveillance, data management and virological surveillance. Members of the mission also participated in a scientific conference dedicated to Medical Workers' Day.

The experts visited key health facilities in Ashgabat, including health centres, infection prevention centres, the Sanitary and Epidemiological Service and the Virology Reference Laboratory, where they assessed laboratory surveillance and the operational capacity of the surveillance system.

Following the mission, the results were discussed, recommendations were made, and further steps were identified to strengthen the integrated influenza and ARI surveillance system in Turkmenistan.