Operational guidance on rapid risk assessment methodology
This guidance document develops a methodology for rapid risk assessments undertaken in the initial stages of an event or incident of potential public health concern. It describes an operational tool to facilitate rapid risk assessments for communicable disease incidents at both Member State and European level. The tool comprises information tables and risk-ranking algorithms to give an estimate of risk posed by a threat.
Executive Summary
During the initial stages of a public health event it is crucial to rapidly assess any potential health impacts. ECDC's new technical document on risk assessment methodology offers several risk-ranking algorithms that can be easily applied to a wide range of different public health threats. In order to prove the viability of their approach, the authors of ‘Operational guidance on rapid risk assessment methodology’ apply their algorithms to four real-world examples: a listeriosis outbreak in Italy, an anthrax outbreak in Scotland, a chikungunya outbreak in Italy, and a measles outbreak in Bulgaria. An operational tool was published based on this guidance on March, 2019