World Health Organisation gears up to organise a virtual conference

In the current age, technology plays a vital role in spreading information among the public. Technology as a tool circulates various types of news. But in most of the cases, it is seen that some people get washed away by some news or information which 'sounds great but at times might be misleading. It was observed that during this time of the pandemic, a lot of rumours were seen spreading over the internet and on various social media sites.

This is not an issue that has arisen during this pandemic but has started more rapidly after the availability of the internet to everyone. This spread of information which at times is full of rumours and very misleading.

It was during this pandemic that a when many people misused media to spread wrong and irrelevant news about Covid-19. It can be said that such malpractices gave rise to a word called INFODEMIC.

The word infodemic can be defined as an excessive amount of information about a problem that is typically unreliable spreads rapidly and makes a solution more difficult to achieve.

The 5th Virtual WHO Infodemic Management Conference was organized by the World Health Organization to take place from November 2 to November 11, 2021.

This conference will happen over four days where experts from across the globe, who will be discussing quantifying the impact of the infodemic on public health, and the effectiveness of measures to mitigate the infodemic.

In order to minimize the spread of any kind of misleading information about public health among the masses, the WHO is developing a tool, which will reply to all the infodemics with proper evidence, focusing its priority on health-related interventions.

The last four conferences helped in understanding the concept of infodemic drivers and social listening approaches. Emphasis was laid on a standardized approach to measuring the impact of the infodemic.

The word infodemic can be defined as an excessive amount of information about a problem that is typically unreliable spreads rapidly and makes a solution more difficult to achieve.

The upcoming conference aims to make a work plan in response to the first workstream identified in the WHO public health research agenda for managing infodemics, which measures and monitors the burden of infodemics.

A team consisting of experts from multi-disciplinary backgrounds like scientists and public-health decision-makers to address metrics, evaluation and study design.

There will be 4 -day sessions of this event.

Session 1: MANAGING INFODEMICS-perspective on measurement and metrics.

Session 2: BURDEN OF INFODEMIC-approaches to study design and metrics.

Session 3: EVALUATING IMPACT OF INFODEMIC MANAGEMENT INTERVENTIONS

Session 4: A WORK PLAN FOR MANAGING ESTIMATING BURDEN OF INFODEMIC AND EVALUATION OF IMPACT OF MITIGATION INTERVENTIONS.

It is expected that these tools will continue to respond to the agendas identified and projected in the previous conferences.