During the current COVID-19 pandemic, with its large impact on international travel, countries are looking for risk- and evidence-based guidance for resuming international travel in a safe manner, with the understanding that there is no “zero risk”. In this context, the WHO Guideline Development Group for International Travel and Health (WHO ITH GDG) is tasked with synthesizing the available evidence from systematic reviews of the scientific literature and other high-quality materials on the effectiveness, safety, and potential harms of various public health measures for limiting the spread of COVID-19, in the context of international travel, taking into consideration key health equity and human rights factors, to inform evidence based guidance development.
Publications
Annexes to Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER) evidence review: public health measures in the aviation sector in the context of COVID-19: quarantine...
Evidence review – Public health measures in the aviation sector in the context of COVID-19: quarantine and isolation - 21 May 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a large-scale impact on international travel and trade, particularly in the aviation sector. WHO is conducting systematic...
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a large-scale impact on international travel and trade, particularly in the aviation sector. WHO is conducting systematic...
All external contributors to the guidelines, including members of the Guideline Development Group and the External Review Group, completed a WHO declaration of interests form in accordance with WHO policy for experts. The declaration of interest forms and the results of the web-based search for each member of the Guideline Development Group were reviewed by the WHO Guideline Steering Group and a management plan was agreed and recorded for each individual and presented at the ITH GDG meeting.
ITH GDG Members
The WHO ITH GDG is a group of experts selected in their personal capacity, following rules and protocols established for WHO guideline development, which ensures their neutrality, independence, and impartiality. The scope of the WHO ITH GDG encompasses all aspects of public health measures with regards to international travel.
Download the biographies of the Chair and all the Members
Chair
Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and Medical Director of the Tropical Disease Unit in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Toronto General Hospital, Canada
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Mitglieder
Director General for Disease Surveillance and Control at the Ministry of Health of Oman
Consultant General Practitioner and Travel Medicine Expert from Kathmandu, Nepal.
Deputy Director at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), National Health Laboratory Service, and founding head of the Division of Public Health Surveillance and Response, South Africa
Director, Travel Safe Clinic Hong Kong
Chief for the Quarantine and Border Health Services in the Division of Global Migration CDC
Executive Director Clinical and Diagnostics, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Chief Technical Advisor on AMR to the Prime Minister of Barbados
National Crossborder Coordinator, Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS), Epidemiologist and Safeguard Specialist, Integrated Health Project Administrative Unit (IHPAU).
PhD James Cook University
Lecturer, Travel Medicine Research Unit, Department of Clinical Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
Chief Medical Officer at Casablanca International Airport, Morocco; National Coordinator of the Points of Entry Program of Morocco
Director of the National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC),
Professor of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Christian Medical College Vellore in South India
Professor and Senior Scientist at the University of Zürich Centre for Travel Medicine
Former Members
Associate Professor of Medicine and Microbiology - RCSI, Consultant Infectious Diseases & Clinical Microbiologist, Member - National Taskforce for combating COVID-19, Head of Microbiology Lab and Infection Control Unit. BDF Hospital - Kingdom of Bahrain
Manager, Public Health Strategy, Ministry of Health, New Zealand
Head of Port Health-Tema Port - Former Member of the International Travel and Health guideline development group (GDG)
Head of Department of Infectious Diseases and Deputy Director of Internal Medicine Residency Program, Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), The Netherlands.
Methodologists
M. Hassan Murad, Mayo Clinic, United States of America; Steven-Jorg Hohlfeld, South African Medical Research Council, South Africa; Eleanor Ochodo, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kenya/Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
Systematic review teams
Ani Movisyan, Jacob Burns, Eva Rehfuess, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany; Ahmed Abou-Setta, Unity Health Toronto, Canada; Mark E Engel, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
External Review Group (ERG) members for ITH GDG in the aviation sector
Lin H. Chen, President, International Society of Travel Medicine, United States of America; Albie de Frey, Travel Doctor Corporate/University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; David Freedman, Professor Emeritus of Infectious Diseases, University of Alabama, Birmingham, United States of America; Dirk Glaesser, United Nations World Tourism Organization; Ansa Jordaan, International Civil Aviation Organization; ; Pedro Legua, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Peru; Sarah McGuinness, Monash University, Australia; Varvara A. Mouchtouri, University of Thessaly, Greece; Manila Nosa, Public Health Services, New Zealand; David Powell, International Air Transport Association, New Zealand; Michael Rossell, Airports Council International World, Canada; Robert Steffen, International Society of Travel Medicine Foundation, Switzerland; Claudio Zilio, University of Padova, Italy
External Review Group – Lay subgroup
Legiston Roy Ferron, Hospital sales specialist representative, retired, Barbados; Jennifer Guerrieri, Transportation Policy Analyst, Nishnawbe Aski Nation; Louis Yew Ming Lau, Construction company, Hong Kong, China; Lindsay Lee, Data analyst, wheelchair user, frequent traveller, USA; Shanzeh Najam, Communication design student, Pakistan; Kashi Syal, English literature student, UK/Canada; Kharlos Tangune, Taxi business, Mozambique; Melody Wren, Travel writer, freelance journalist, Canada; Dr Rochelle Lee, Accident and Emergency Physician. Travel Medicine Practitioner – SASTM, South Africa