2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005
ARCHIVES 2003
November 2003
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Emory University LF Support Centre supports PacELF Handbook
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Emory University LF Support Centre supports for making the PacELF Handbook.
Dr. Tom Burkot (Entomologist/CDC) and Dr. NGUYEN Ngoc Lam (Institute Malarde) stayed PacELF office and worked on PacELF Handbook from 19 to 24 November 2003.
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October 2003
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Annual meeting report of "PacELF 5th Annual Workshop" will be ready soon.
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Mr. Jonathan King (CDC/American Samoa) stayed Suva after AM5 meeting and
assisted PacELF office to compile this annual meeting report.
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Samoa's 5th MDA was launched on the 5th of October 2003.
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Samoa's 5th MDA was implemented this year and was officially launched on the 5th of October. Community awareness and promotion workshops for each health district were conducted before the MDA started. There was good community participation from village mayors, church ministers, presidents of women's committees and volunteer drug distributors at the workshops. During the first week of the MDA the response from the community was very good. There were a few families especially in the Apia Urban Area who objected to taking the drugs because they believe that if they live in screened European houses the mosquitoes will not get to them. However after much information sharing and education some have consented to taking the drugs. Media campaign for the MDA was quite intensive during the month of the MDA especially through the TV, radio and newspapers.
Population coverage in the Apia Urban Area had been declining in the last three years with only 35% population coverage in 2002. With the aim to aggressively boost the population coverage for the Apia Urban Area this year the Filariasis task force, the community health nurses, environmental health officers and volunteer staff from other divisions of the ministry of health conducted intensive drug distribution in the heavily populated areas like Vaitele, Vailele, Siúsega, Fagalii and villages inside the town area. Coverage for the big island of Savaii is now complete and all the registration books have been returned to the Central Filariasis Office. The big island of Savaii has always had good coverage in the last four years because community support and mobilisation is implemented through the strong traditional and cultural systems and organisations, which comprises of the
village mayor and council, the women's committees and church leaders and groups within the villages."
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August-September 2003
| PacELF 5th Annual Workshop held at Lautoka, Fiji, 22-26 September 2003. |
Summary
During the Fifth Annual Workshop, country programme managers presented achievements and lessons learned during the past 12 months. Samoa will be the first country in the Region to have completed five full rounds of MDA, thus marking a major milestone in the overall global initiative to eliminate LF by 2020. Several other countries are approaching the final rounds of MDA and coverage in most areas has been excellent. Midterm evaluations in 5 countries show 40% filarial antigen reduction and more than 90% microfilaraemia reduction. Countries where LF is not endemic will soon be undertaking final surveys to certify elimination.
PacELF shared some of its achievements, which has included distributing 37,930,000 DEC tablets, 1,318,000 albendazole tablets and 73,000 ICT tests to 14 countries so far in 2003. In addition, PacELF has developed the STAR Network, a system of communication and supply between PacELF countries and the PacELF office. Included in the STAR Network is the PacELF website that posts news, events and photos of country programme activities.
Technical advisors updated the status of LF elimination activities in other regions of the world. Also, the advisors presented information on monitoring and evaluation of MDA activities, vector control and morbidity alleviation programmes. GSK shared the importance of continued investigation and reporting of suspected serious adverse events (SAE). Out of 150 million people treated globally by MDA, 30 suspected SAE were reported. Only 2 of these were due to direct reaction to the drug. Some observers provided examples of developing social mobilization strategies and IEC material based on local social science research.
Finally, participants agreed on post-MDA activities to ensure the elimination of LF. These activities include maintaining high levels of advocacy, assessing morbidity, integrating LF activities with other related programmes and developing surveillance systems to detect introduced or re-emergent LF infections. Country representatives concluded that PacELF should establish a handbook to provide separate guidance specific to situations in each country on monitoring, evaluation, and post-MDA activities.
Workshop Objectives
The objectives of the workshop were to:
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Review country progress and plans for MDA |
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Review progress toward the incorporation of targeted vector control as part of national filariasis elimination strategies; and the standardization of data collection and reporting |
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Finalize the activities necessary after MDA is completed, criteria for stopping MDA and measures for validating elimination in the Pacific Island countries |
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Agree on the development of a PacELF Handbook and Databook to serve as an information resource and guide for monitoring, evaluation and certification of elimination |
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July - August 2003
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PacELF Progress Report 2002 will be ready soon.
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PacELF progress report January - December 2002, "Our Work 2002" will be
ready soon. It will distribute to PacELF member countries on the 5th Annual
Meeting at Lautoka in Fiji, 22-26 Sept. 2003.
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New PacELF advocacy materials 2003
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New PacELF advocacy materials 2003, poster, pamphlet and sticker will be ready on the PacELF 5th Annual Meeting.
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Open day for Mataika House / PacELF held on 14 August 2003
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PacELF, Mataika House (Fiji National Centre for Scientific Services for Virology and Vector Borne Disease) and National Centre for Health Promotion (NCHP) held an open day on 14 August 2003.
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| WHO short-term consultants (STC) work for PacELF programme. |
Vanuatu filariasis control programme has received vehicle from WHO on 25 July 2003. Vanuatu has almost completed the 4th MDA in July.
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| WHO short-term consultants (STC) work for PacELF programme. |
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Dr. Eisaku KIMURA, entomologist stays in Samoa from 20 July to 16 August, and reviews the MDA campaigns and analyses the data in Samoa.
Dr. Patricia Graves, epidemiologist stays in Fiji from 23 July to 18 August, and develops the PacELF Hand book for PacELF programme.
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| DEC tablets has shipped out for PNG |
DEC tablets for the MDA have shipped out for Papua New Guinea from PacELF warehouse.
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PacELF office has received GGP funds
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PacELF office has received Japan’s Grant Assistance for Grassroots Project (GGP) funds to the Project for Promotion of Pacific Programme for Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis.
Photo on left (Newspaper article 13 of June 2003 - Fiji Sun)
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| Tonga has finished the 3rd MDA |
Tonga has just finished the 3rd MDA for filariasis in June 2003.
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Two new staff member
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Two new staff members have joined the PacELF Secretariat team. Mr. Y. FURUYA is an UNV; Assistant Programme Coordinator for PacELF from 20 June 2003 and Ms. Maca COLATA is Project Coordinator for PacELF Promotional Project (Funded by GGP) from 1 July 2003.
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| ICT RAK Filariasis kits |
We, PacELF Office received 12,810,000 DEC tablets from JICA on 23 May 2003 and 1,358,000 Albendazole tablets from GSK on 29 May 2003. These drugs will be dispatched to countries (American Samoa, Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Tuvalu) for next MDA in the second half of 2003 soon.
We received 73,000 test cards of ICT RAK kit provided by JICA in April 2003.
All kits were distributed to 14 countries (Cook Islands, F.S. Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu) on 9th April.
We look forward to hearing from countries received all kits safely..
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| FOR PacCARE |
The Programme Review Group for PacELF (PacCARE) met as scheduled on the 17th and 18th February, 2003 at the WHO Office, Suva, Fiji. This follows the formal appointments of the PacCARE Members by the WHO Regional Director WPRO, Dr Shigeru Omi last year. Following the 3rd PacCARE Meeting in Raratonga last year, huge concerns has been the coordination and networking with the PacELF Secretariat on the research activities, resource support initiated by National MoH, and donor support provided directly to countries without PacELF being kept in the loop. The onus has been on all member countries and donors to inform PacELF of these initiatives. PacELF has encouraged tri-lateral communication channels (donor-country-PacELF) under the PacELF umbrella. This ensures a structured network on areas of support being provided for clarity, transparency, coordination, facilitation and information sharing. The forum also dwelled at length on the elimination criteria for LF most appropriate for PacELF given the challenging situation of aedes polynesiensis as a principal vector in PacELF endemic countries. The meeting recommendations are included in a PowerPoint presentation format and will be formally presented to the PacELF Program Managers at the 5th Annual Meeting scheduled to be held in Fiji this year.
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| Annual Meeting of the PacELF Program Managers Meeting |
The 5th Annual Meeting of all PacELF Program Managers will be held in Fiji from the 22nd to the 26th September 2003. The meeting will include program managers from the 22 pacific island countries and will entail discussions on elimination criteria, country experiences on MDA, The 6th PacCARE Meeting (PacELF PRG) will also be held within this meeting and all the member countries will be briefed an all recommendations before the closure of the annual meeting.
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