Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a viral zoonosis that primarily affects animals but can also infect humans. Infection can cause severe disease in both animals and humans, with symptoms ranging from a mild flu-like illness to severe haemorrhagic fever that can be lethal. The disease also results in significant economic losses due to death and abortion among RVF-infected livestock.

Chikungunya is a viral disease transmitted to humans by Aedes mosquitoes. It causes fever and severe joint pain, which is often debilitating and may persist for several months, or even years. Other symptoms include muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash. Joint pain is often debilitating and can vary in duration. The disease shares some clinical signs with dengue fever and zika virus infection, and can be misdiagnosed in areas where these are common.

Although the disease, which was first described during a 1952 outbreak in southern Tanzania, mostly occurs in Africa, Asia and the Indian subcontinent, a major outbreak in 2015 affected several countries in the Americas. In the Eastern Mediterranean Region, chikungunya was first found during serological surveys conducted in Pakistan in 1983. In 2011, Yemen reported the first outbreak in the Region resulting in over 15000 suspected cases and 104 suspected deaths. In 2017, Pakistan reported a major outbreak with over 8000 cases affecting multiple provinces. Sporadic cases of chikungunya have been reported also from Saudi Arabia and Sudan. In 2018, Sudan also reported an outbreak of chikungunya in its eastern states.

The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) was established in April 2000 as a global network of technical institutions and networks that have the capacity to contribute resources to international disease outbreak response.