PATH has received funding to provide technical support to the Ministry of Health (MOH) to strengthen water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in Tanzania as part of the GHS partnership, building on response to the 2016 cholera outbreak. Activities that PATH and CDC Tanzania hope to explore include development of behavior change materials focusing on essential activities, such as handwashing with soap, latrine use, and safe storage and treatment of water; conducting baseline water quality testing on public water trucks and water storage containers, which are a common source of water in urban areas; introducing safe water storage containers, disinfectants, and handwashing stations in health facilities and schools; and conducting cost-benefit and willingness to pay studies to inform sustainability planning.

PATH has continued work to strengthen laboratory capacity and combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In Year 2, PATH will work with CDC to provide technical support to the MOH in order to 1. Strengthen surveillance systems with focus on development of an electronic integrated disease surveillance and response improvement plan, disease notification and management of mandatory diseases guides, and evaluate district-level capacity for outbreak investigation and response; 2. Build capacity of the Division of Health Information Systems, including development of an epidemiological data warehouse, training of data managers on mobile use of DHIS2, and facilitation of collaboration at the Ministry of Health around a One Health strategy; 3. Support immunization efforts including evaluating the cold chain landscape and developing a training curriculum for equipment maintenance; and 4. Coordinate emergency management preparation and conduct simulation exercises.

PATH is working closely with the MOH General Department of Preventive Medicine (GDPM), CDC, and other government partners to improve the current health surveillance system and build capacity for public health professionals to use health data for rapid response.

Public health leaders from across the country participated in trainings on Tableau, a data visualization software that health officials can use to analyze health information using dashboards, graphs and charts. This tool will support health officials to utilize data more efficiently in identifying health events and making crucial decisions. PATH facilitated a workshop for GDPM focused on improvements to the national health data warehouse used by workers in Vietnam’s newly formed emergency operations center to identify and respond to outbreaks. Leaders gathered to discuss the process for continued development of a robust surveillance system and to identify a long term strategy. A training-of-trainers workshop on event-based surveillance (EBS) was conducted to test and improve training content and educational materials targeting health workers. EBS is an innovative approach to identify and collect warning signs from the community that might signal an outbreak. Pilot EBS activities will be rolled out in four provinces in the coming months.

Read more about how Vietnam is using data to prepare for emergency response on CDC’s Our Global Voices blog.

PATH has received funding to support the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to establish the first emergency operating center (EOC) in the country to coordinate prevention, detection and rapid response for public health emergencies. As a first step, delegates from the MOH, WHO, and PATH’s DRC office will conduct a learning trip to the PATH Vietnam office to gather information on establishing an EOC and data warehouse. The DRC team will apply lessons learned from Vietnam to plan procurement, establish hardware and software systems, and develop standard operation procedures for the EOC. Additional activities will include conducting trainings for MOH staff and catalyzing partnerships to support the national and regional EOCs.

PATH leadership participated in the 71st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and joined global leaders to call for action to promote global health security and pandemic preparedness. PATH co-hosted a side event with the Global Health Security Agenda Private Sector Roundtable focusing on a multisector approach to global health security. PATH President and CEO Steve Davis moderated a panel discussion which focused on the importance of partnerships across the private, public, and social sectors to find and deliver innovative solutions to address the challenges of global health security. The importance of prevention and control of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was a key topic at the discussion and throughout the UNGA. PATH joined global leaders to call for urgent action to find innovative ways to prevent, detect and respond to AMR – such as novel antibiotics, diagnostics, stronger infection control practices, and new research and development investments.

Steve Davis also spoke on the GHSA and pandemic preparedness at a private roundtable hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on September 29. The panel was moderated by Tom Bollyky, Senior Fellow for Global Health, Economics, and Development at CFR and co-author of an expert brief written with Steve Davis on the future of global health security. Richard Hatchett of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also spoke at the event, drawing on lessons from the US Biodefense program that can be applied to emerging infectious diseases that threaten to become “the next Zika.”