Activities by strategy  Strategy 1 - Harmonisation of health data needs and development of adequate surveillance systems, including operational research
Strategy 2 - Development of relevant computer applications Strategy 3 - Adaptation of field epidemiology and public health surveillance training programmes to local and regional needs Strategy 4 - Promoting the use of e-mail, opening the network to new clients, new services and other networks Strategy 5 - Publication of health information bulletins, technical studies, applied research findings, monographs, information on resources available in the network, etc. Strategy 1 - Harmonisation of health data needs and development of adequate surveillance systems, including operational research In-country and regional support to public health surveillance and response development One of the aims of the PPHSN is to provide tools and technical expertise to the Pacific Islands in order to improve their surveillance and response activities whenever needed. One of these tools is the PacSel methodology: it helps to select priority communicable diseases and health indicators for surveillance. It was developed and validated during the preparatory year before the PPHSN establishment. This methodology was taught during the first series of SPC sub-regional public health surveillance workshops . It was applied in some of the Pacific countries or territories. For more information on the PacSel method, read the following article: Souarès Y., Harmonization of regional data: requirements in the Pacific, Public Health Surveillance in the Pacific, SPC 1998, 33-43 In-country technical assistance was provided through the PPHSN to:  implement the hospital-based EPI active surveillance
or on request, to: review and upgrade of the communicable disease surveillance and health information systems, like for instance in the Federated States of Micronesia, at state and federal level. control outbreaks of communicable diseases, like for instance in Nauru (typhoid fever outbreak), in the Federated States of Micronesia or in the Marshall Islands (cholera outbreaks), and in the Northern Mariana Islands (leptospirosis). At the regional level, the PPHSN provides support through its existing services, i.e. PacNet, LabNet and EpiNet, and is able to mobilise rapidly and efficiently like it did for SARS: on 17 March 2003, right after WHO issued SARS global alert and travel advisory, the Coordinating Body launched PPHSN SARS Task Force, with, as first (and achieved) objectives, interim guidance, SARS kits at strategic places and in-country assessment and infection control.
Hospital-based EPI active surveillance Over 50 hospitals in 20 Pacific island countries and areas are participating in monthly surveillance and reporting of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), suspect measles, and neonatal tetanus. This surveillance network includes all national and secondary hospitals in the Pacific island countries and areas (excluding Papua New Guinea, considered as a separate entity given its size). The network was established in 1997 with these objectives: to ensure complete reporting and investigation of all AFP cases in children under age 15: this will allow the Pacific island countries and areas to meet global criteria for certifying poliomyelitis eradication; to improve surveillance of measles: this will support accelerated efforts at measles control via high routine immunization coverage and measles mass immunization campaigns; to identify high risk areas for neonatal tetanus: so efforts can be targeted for the elimination of this disease; and to demonstrate the effectiveness of an alternative surveillance and response mechanism: this supplements the weekly or monthly passive systems now in place. This active surveillance network was endorsed by an independent Subregional Committee on the Certification of the Eradication of Poliomyelitis in Pacific Island Countries and Areas. It provides the basis for documentation and action for meeting regional goals in controlling or eradicating polio, measles, and neonatal tetanus. The network depends on the active participation of 20 national coordinators, more than 50 hospital coordinators, and about 200 key paediatric clinicians in the 20 Pacific island countries and areas. The time commitment of key clinicians is minimal, but crucial. Hospital and national coordinators are asked to commit up to an hour every month to this surveillance mechanism.
Meeting on epidemiological surveillance of HIV, AIDS, STI and other communicable diseases with outbreak potential for Pacific Island countries This meeting was a contribution to the improvement of PPHSN surveillance activities. It gathered communicable disease surveillance experts from all Pacific Island countries and territories and from organisations/institutions like CDN-ANZ, the Fiji School of Medicine, SPC, UNFPA, in Nadi in November 1999. It allowed to discuss communicable disease surveillance and outbreak investigation.
The experts: identified strength and weaknesses of existing surveillance systems; finalised draft technical guidelines on HIV, AIDS and STI surveillance; defined standards, indicators and targets for HIV, AIDS and STI surveillance; reviewed methodologies and instruments for the flow and use of epidemiological data at national and regional levels; and worked on notifiable disease surveillance and response, targeting four communicable diseases with potential outbreak. Link to the HIV/AIDS STI Guidelines developed after the meeting (Word document)
Sub-regional EpiNet workshops I, II and III After the endorsement of PPHSN draft developmental plan in Madang in March 2001 by PICT Ministers of Health and the subsequent nomination by the PICTs of their national or territorial EpiNet teams, three very productive EpiNet sub-regional workshops were jointly funded and organised by SPC and WHO and held between December 2001 and March 2002. Altogether, close to 100 health professionals, members of national EpiNet teams and specialists, worked to further develop mechanisms for Pacific regional collaboration and communication in outbreak surveillance and response, and protocols and plans for communicable disease surveillance and response at national and regional level, including laboratory support. The outputs of the workshops were PPHSN regional surveillance and response draft guidelines for the 6 PPHSN target diseases and recommendations for surveillance and response at national and regional level. EpiNet Workshop I This first workshop, for the Micronesian sub-region, took place in December 2001 in Guam, where some 20 participants focused on two of the six diseases under special surveillance by PPHSN: cholera and leptospirosis.>> [recommendations] EpiNet Workshop IIThe second workshop, for the Melanesian sub-region and the French-speaking countries and territories, took place at SPC headquarters in Noumea from 4 to 8 March 2002. Its focus was dengue fever and influenza control. It assembled some 30 members of the EpiNet teams from the Fiji Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, French Polynesia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna, together with participants from Nauru and Palau who had not been able to take part in the first workshop for their sub-region.>> [recommendations] EpiNet Workshop III The third and last workshop in the series took place in Apia, Samoa from 18 to 22 March, bringing together some 20 members of EpiNet teams from the Polynesia sub-region from Niue, Samoa, Tokelau and Tonga, and a Fiji participant who had been unable to attend the workshop in Noumea. It focused on the two other diseases targeted by the PPHSN: typhoid and measles.>> [recommendations] [Back to the top] | 
