Applied Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases in Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR)

Abstract

The National Centre for Laboratory and Epidemiology (NCLE) is responsible for surveillance, outbreak investigation and responses, providing national public health laboratory services, as well as capacity building through a one-year Lao Field Epidemiology Training (FET) program. From March 2019 to 2020, I undertook my MAE field placement within the Epidemiology section at the NCLE. This dissertation illustrates the four field projects, skills, and knowledge I have gained during the 24-month placement. My field projects consist of establishing a Congenital Rubella Syndrome Sentinel Surveillance System; investigating contributing factors to low measles immunization coverage in an outbreak of a hard-to-reach rural village in Xaisomboun province; investigation of first few cases and contacts for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, analysing laboratory findings of the first 1000s cases of reported suspected COVID-19 cases and designing a dengue primary intervention study. I gained additional skills and knowledge during the program through the full literature reviews, teaching, writing for a lay audience, preparing an advanced draft of a paper for publication, preparing an abstract and oral presentation of projects, all of which will be demonstrated in subsequent and relevant chapters. I also successfully completed five MAE coursework units. Lastly, I also attained additional experience and professional development activities during participation in the 2019 Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Young Scientist Program, Training of Trainers (TOT) for FET graduates and coordinators, weekly Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) meeting, and weekly Surveillance Data Review/Analysis in Lao PDR. These projects, skills, knowledge, and experiences comply with the core requirements for the Australian National University Master of Philosophy (Applied Epidemiology) program. Show more