Responses to epidemics, emergencies and disasters raise many ethical issues for the people involved, including frontline health workers, public health specialists, researchers, policy makers and the general public.

Public health emergencies present serious ethical challenges in the form of resource allocation, priority-setting, physical distancing, public health surveillance, health-care worker's rights and obligations to conduct of clinical trials. These in turn are complicated by the diverse health systems and unique cultural and socio-economic contexts of countries. Consequently, there is a great need for guidance to ensure ethical conduct of research, decision making in clinical care, and public health policymaking during such emergencies.

WHO takes a leadership role in the global ethics response to public health emergencies and works to ensure that ethics is embedded in the associated governance and oversight mechanisms. WHO develops guidelines and training materials on ethical issues arising in different types of epidemics, such as COVID-19, pandemic influenza, Ebola, and Zika. The organization supports its Member States in ethics capacity-building, and conducts training and workshops. Through its collaborative networks and outreach activities, WHO fosters communication and cooperation in the global ethics community to strengthen ethics response worldwide.