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October - December 2024
SARInet plus
Newsletter
SARInet plus wishes you a
happy holidays and a happy new year!
As we close a successful year, we want to express our gratitude for the commitment and collaboration of our community. Together, we’ve strengthened our network and advanced the goals of respiratory virus surveillance and preparedness across the Americas.
Thank you for being an essential part of SARInet plus. Let’s keep working together to build a healthier and safer future in 2025.
Warmest wishes for a joyful holiday season and a prosperous new year!
Join our working groups!
SARInet plus invites you to become part of one or more of our working groups, where experts and professionals collaborate on specific projects, exchange knowledge, and develop practical solutions.
Being a member of these groups allows you to contribute to key areas such as:
Pandemic preparedness:
- Sharing best practices and challenges in pandemic preparedness for respiratory pathogens.
- Developing national preparedness and response plans.
- Co-developing simulation exercises adapted to the region.
Laboratory:
- Promoting collaboration among National Influenza Centers, National Reference Laboratories, and national counterparts
- Strengthening virological surveillance across the Americas.
- Ensuring high-quality data and robust diagnostic capacities.
Human-animal interface:
- Improving zoonotic influenza surveillance and risk assessment using a One Health approach.
- Focusing on defining practical recommendations to strengthen cross-sector collaboration.
- Exploring successful practices that can serve as models.
Operational research:
- Promoting the exchange of knowledge and experiences to strengthen operational research.
- Enhancing regional collaboration and capacity building.
- Analyzing morbidity and mortality data to inform decisions.
Surveillance:
- Fostering a community of best practices and facilitating the exchange of experiences among countries.
- Monitoring trends and epidemiological patterns through routine surveillance.
- Supporting early detection and investigation of unusual respiratory events with an emphasis on timely response.
Information systems:
- Creating a knowledge-sharing community for epidemiological surveillance technologies.
- Sharing best practices and lessons learned.
- Developing and implementing technological tools for data collection, analysis, and dissemination.
Risk communication and community engagement:
- Exchanging knowledge and best practices to strengthen RCCE strategies.
- Developing tailored communication plans and engagement frameworks.
- Ensuring transparent and effective communication of health risks.
Send your interest to flu@paho.org, specifying the groups you’d like to join.
Highlights
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) presents the dashboard on respiratory virus surveillance systems in the Region of the Americas.
The purpose of this dashboard is to provide an overview of respiratory virus surveillance systems in the countries of the Region, as well as key health, prevention and pandemic preparedness indicators for respiratory viruses.
The dashboard currently includes data for 2022, graphs on diagnostic capacity, surveillance of ILI/SARI, influenza vaccination, FluNet and FluID notifications, and detailed country profiles addressing aspects such as pandemic preparedness, vaccination and antiviral use.
Colombia has taken significant steps in its preparedness for public health emergencies through strategic activities under the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework, a global initiative coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO). This framework aims to improve influenza pandemic preparedness, surveillance and response capabilities by providing financial and technical resources to strengthen both health infrastructure and response capacity at the national level. The country has focused its efforts on decentralized training, intersectoral work and the adoption of technological innovations to improve epidemiological surveillance and rapid response to respiratory disease outbreaks.
Context and approach of the PIP Framework in Colombia
With a comprehensive model that combines technical and theoretical training and practical experience, Colombia is making progress in preparedness and response to health emergencies caused by respiratory pathogens. With the support of PAHO/WHO, the country has implemented training strategies in emergency preparedness and response to epidemic and pandemic events, with emphasis on influenza and other respiratory viruses, including workshops, practical training, simulation exercises and drills. These initiatives strengthen the capabilities of health professionals, allowing them to work in a coordinated manner in the management of threats, including those caused by respiratory agents and pathogens of zoonotic origin, such as avian influenza, testing the knowledge acquired. In addition, the use of technological tools such as SIMEXamericas to transform theory into practice and optimize operational preparedness is noteworthy.
News
Peer learning on pandemic planning: Multisectoral engagement across the Americas
The Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats (PRET) initiative organizes quarterly virtual peer learning on pandemic planning calls. These calls provide a collaborative space for countries to learn from one another and share experiences in pandemic planning. For instance, participants explore examples of national plans, successful approaches, challenges, and key learnings.
Simulation exercise in Costa Rica reinforces its strategy for future respiratory pandemics
Costa Rica conducted a simulation exercise based on its updated National Pandemic Preparedness Plan, with the objective of evaluating and strengthening its capacity to respond to respiratory pathogens. This activity, organized with PIP funds and technical support from PAHO/WHO, brought together key actors from different sectors to test the plan's mechanisms and propose improvements aligned with the PRET initiative.
A technical cooperation mission took place in the British Virgin Islands to strengthen the country's influenza and other respiratory viruses surveillance systems. Led by PAHO, this initiative focused on reviewing the status of current national guidelines for the surveillance of diseases, particularly those caused by respiratory viruses.
The PAHO held the initial meeting of the pilot project of the Respiratory Mortality Surveillance network (PAHOMoMo). This virtual meeting brought together representatives from countries of the Americas, international organizations and public health experts to discuss the initial steps towards the implementation of this innovative network.
Strengthening respiratory virus surveillance in Trinidad and Tobago
The PAHO/WHO Country Office recently held a mission in Trinidad and Tobago which focused on enhancing the country’s ability to track and monitor the spread of respiratory viruses. The aim of the mission was to strengthen the systems that detect these viruses. By improving these systems, the country is better poised to handle future outbreaks and keep communities safe.
PAHO/WHO hosted experts from the Commission for the Prevention and Control of Zoonotic Influenza in the Americas (CIPCIZA) to launch the ad hoc intersectoral working groups on surveillance, risk assessment, and laboratory.
The International Reagent Resource (IRR), a critical resource for the distribution of reagents and essential materials used in the diagnosis and virological surveillance of respiratory diseases (among others), is an initiative of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Currently, the IRR is preparing to implement significant operational updates in 2025. These changes aim to optimize inventory allocation, streamline shipping processes, and improve access to essential resources for reference laboratories and National Influenza Centers (NICs).
HIVE community
The SARInet plus community is hosted on HIVE, a digital space for health emergency preparedness and response. Our Community aims to create a collaborative platform where members share expertise, co-develop solutions, and enhance our capacity to respond to health emergencies. On HIVE, members can collaborate, exchange knowledge, access reliable information, and engage in action-oriented activities, focusing on the surveillance and management of influenza and other respiratory viruses with epidemic and pandemic potential in the Americas.
Share your updates in our next newsletter!
We want to hear from you! If you have news, achievements, or updates you’d like to share with the SARInet plus community, send them our way.
Submit your contributions by February 10 to info@sarinet.org, with a copy to acostaand@paho.org, and be featured in the next edition of our newsletter
