Office of Global Affairs, Office of Pandemics and Emerging Threats (PET)

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 security and the opportunities to work with international partners to minimize these impacts.  We lead coordination with an ever-expanding network of multidisciplinary and multisectoral partners to set policy 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, including the World Health Organization (WHO) 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 shaping policy and global response coordination by working across HHS and with international partners at the forefront of global outbreak response to reduce the spread of diseases that can cross borders.

The Strategic Goals of OGA’s PET are to:   

• Advance U.S. national security through international diplomacy, economic and social development, and achieving global health security.   
• Demonstrate leadership at the domestic-international interface of health emergency prevention, preparedness, and response.    
• Strengthen national and regional capacities to enable more equitable prevention, preparedness, and response to pandemics and other 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:

• Promote alignment of U.S. international and domestic policy priorities for epidemic and pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response to influenza and other emerging infectious diseases
• Develop and implement effective international frameworks, policies, programs, and practices to strengthen more equitable epidemic and pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response for influenza and other emerging infectious diseases
• Serve as advisor and lead coordinator for preparing for and facilitating policy responses to international epidemics and pandemics of influenza and other emerging health threats
• Strengthen the global health security architecture, including by improving governance of multilateral institutions focused on global health security and financing for global health security 
• Build and strengthen partnerships and platforms for collaboration for domestic, regional, and global action 
• Foster peer-to-peer policy and technical exchanges to promote information sharing and identify innovative approaches and best practices that strengthen global health security and improve prevention, preparedness, and response. 

For more information on the Office of PET issue areas, visit the OGA Global Health Security page.