Approaches towards fighting the COVID19 pandemic in Vietnam

Abstract

My placement during the Master of Applied Epidemiology (MAE) program was in the Department of Epidemiology of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Hanoi, Vietnam from February 2020 to October 2021. During this time, I conducted four main projects to meet the MAE requirements. In addition, I contributed to seven peer-reviewed publications, another three advanced manuscripts, which have been submitted for publication, and five presentations at international conferences.

This thesis contains seven chapters dedicated to my work during the COVID-19 epidemic in Vietnam during my MAE fellowship. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the thesis, providing an overview of all projects and how they relate to MAE requirements. Chapter 2 discusses the MAE requirement for outbreak investigation. I provide the investigation of the first COVID-19 outbreak in a healthcare setting in Vietnam. I also discuss the application and usefulness of Social Network Analysis in curbing the COVID-19 transmission in the hospital setting. Chapter 3 discusses the analysis of the public health dataset using the contact tracing data of more than 2,000 passengers on flights with at least one COVID-19 confirmed case during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam. Chapter 4 discuss the evaluation of the COVID-19 surveillance system at Points of Entry. This project used data from a country-led workshop that was designed based on WHO's guidance for Intra-Action Review during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapter 5 includes an epidemiological study about the mental health problem among community health workers in Vietnam during COVID-19 pandemic. Chapter 6 includes a systematic review to assess the robustness of COVID-19 efficacy vaccines trial results. Chapter 7 includes materials for a lay audience report, lessons from the field, teaching from the field, and a side project.