Content created by Office of Global Affairs (OGA)
Contact: Summer Galloway, PhD
Director, Office of Pandemics and Emerging Threats
Office of Global Affairs
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Email: globalhealth@hhs.gov
About the Office of Pandemics and Emerging Threats
The mission of the Office of Global Affair’s (OGA), Office of Pandemics and Emerging Threats (PET) is to protect the health and lives of Americans at home and abroad by providing leadership and expertise in the development and implementation of policies, strategies, and initiatives to strengthen prevention, preparedness, and response to health emergencies, including pandemics.
The Office of PET works at the critical domestic-international interface, recognizing the impact that international public health emergencies can have on domestic health, economic, and national security. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that international health emergencies, especially pandemics, can cause major social and economic destabilization, which can pose a threat to national security. Investments in preparedness and planning for response to health emergencies can significantly reduce these impacts.
We lead coordination with an ever-expanding network of domestic and international partners across sectors and disciplines to advance policy domestically, regionally, and globally and support initiatives to prevent, detect, and respond to health threats whether natural, accidental, or deliberate in origin. We work with public health organizations, industry, academia, foreign ministries of health, and global multilateral organizations to advance the priorities of the U.S. Government and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and support the HHS Secretary on all international engagements related to health security and outbreak response. Our Office plays a central role in strategically shaping policy and international response coordination by working across HHS, with U.S. government interagency colleagues, and with international partners at the forefront of global outbreak response to end outbreaks at their source and reduce the spread of diseases across borders, and into the United States.
Our Strategic Goals are to:
- Advance U.S. national security through diplomacy, policy development, and partnerships at the intersection of national and international health emergency prevention, preparedness, and response.
- Strengthen national, regional, and global capacities and capabilities to enable more effective prevention, preparedness, and response to health emergencies.
- Integrate multidisciplinary and multisectoral approaches to domestic and international policy, programs, and practice on health emergency prevention, preparedness, and response.
To advance our strategic goals, the Office of PET concentrates on activities and approaches that make maximum use of HHS technical strengths and comparative advantage, leverages HHS and OGA capabilities and resources as well as those of our partners, and integrates and embraces the goals and objectives laid out in the overall HHS Strategic Plan. The Office of PET consists of three strategic divisions that work collectively to advance these strategic objectives:
- Align U.S. national and international policy priorities for epidemic and pandemic prevention of, preparedness for, and response to influenza and emerging threats to public health.
- Lead development and implementation of international frameworks, policies, and programs to strengthen epidemic and pandemic prevention of, preparedness for, and response to influenza and emerging threats to public health.
- Improve governance, coordination, and collaboration across the global health security architecture.
- Build and strengthen partnerships for national, regional, and global health security.
- Foster policy and technical exchanges to promote information sharing across sectors and identify innovative approaches and best practices that strengthen health security.
For more information on the Office of PET issue areas, visit the OGA Global Health Security page.