In this meeting, which was attended by 121 representatives from 67 institutions, the decision was made to form GOARN to contribute resources, coordination, surveillance, and technical assistance towards combating diseases.
[3] The WHO's guiding principles are to standardize "epidemiological, laboratory, clinical management, research, communication, logistics, support, security, evacuation, and communication systems" and coordinative international resources to support local efforts by GOARN partners to combat outbreaks.
It also focuses on improving long term ability to provide technical assistance to affected areas.
[4] GOARN has grown to now have over 600 partners in the form of public health institutions, networks, laboratories, and United Nations and non-governmental organizations.
[5] Through its partners, GOARN is staffed by a variety of individuals who specialize in public health, such as "doctors, nurses, infection control specialists, logisticians, laboratory specialists; communication, anthropology and social mobilization experts, emergency management and public health professionals among others.
[citation needed] Another notable partner is the Center for Disease Control, which sends technical resources and staff to GOARN.
The Nuclear Threat Initiative provides GOARN with US$500,000 as a revolving fund, meant to be used for quickly mobilizing response teams.
[6] Some examples of deployments are the SARS outbreak in Asia in 2003, Rift Valley fever, and the nipah virus around the Indian subcontinent.
[9] Since its creation, GOARN cooperated with various other organizations to control outbreaks and improve national capacity to respond to diseases.
This second team transitioned to Guangdong, where they investigated the earliest cases of SARS and conducted interviews with health staff.
[14] On June 23, a GOARN steering committee session sent a message to WHO requesting for WHO to lead the response more strongly because it was the only agency with the resources and staff to do so.
[15] In Sierre Leone, GOARN has sent case management and laboratory experts from the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh to help train the response capacity of health care and laboratory workers case management and diagnosis.
GOARN, as per the request of the Ministry of Health of Iraq for support and training in outbreak response, deployed a multidisciplinary team of six experts to the North-Iraqi Dohuk and Erbil camps to assist with assessing the risk of cholera and other diseases as well as assisting MoH to prepare for response to the diseases.
Its activities consisted of assessment of the situation, communication between partners, infection control, laboratory diagnostic, and transportation of specimens.