Australia is recommitting its support to the PNG Institute of Medical Research (PNGIMR) to continue institutional strengthening via the Strengthening Research and Operational Needs through Good Infrastructure and Modernisation (STRONGIM IMR) program. This investment builds on our partnership dating back to 2019, with a focus on building safe, accessible and productive workplaces; installing IT improvements and upgrades; strengthening the capacity to conduct collaborative and impactful research in emerging fields ; and fortifying administrative and support services.

Australia’s partnership with James Cook University (JCU) is supporting Pacific Island Countries and areas (PICs) to combat mosquito-borne diseases and improve community health and well-being through strengthened mosquito surveillance and control. JCU manages the Pacific Mosquito Surveillance Strengthening for Impact (PacMOSSI) consortium, which supports PICs to  prevent, control and contain diseases such as dengue, malaria, Chikungunya and Zika.

The Pac-EVIPP+ program goal is to link partners and programs across the Pacific and Southeast  Asia regions for a strong and integrated applied epidemiology workforce. Its main objective is to build and support a strong field epidemiology community through advanced learning pathways, multi-sectoral collaboration, and networks for effective response to health security and public health threats.

The project will also develop para-veterinary training modules to provide refresher training and hands-on skills development in zoonotic diseases, emerging infectious disease prevention, One Health and biosecurity, for existing para-veterinarians and associated animal health workforce in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste and Vanuatu.

The team brought together and upskill frontline healthcare practitioners through running training programs such as the Advanced Field Epidemiology Training Program in PNG (A-FETPNG).

This program involved fellows who identified national priority areas and key focus areas for operational research. They then worked with policy makers, program managers, educators and health care workers to address these priority areas.

Around the world, having sufficient people trained in contact tracing has proven to be one of the key factors to successfully containing outbreaks of COVID-19, as well as other infectious diseases.

At the end of this project, FEiA will have trained up to 42 staff in field epidemiology who can conduct surveillance and implement public health interventions to help health authorities respond more quickly and effectively to disease outbreaks such as COVID-19.

At the end of the project, Pacific Island countries will have a cadre of well-trained field epidemiologists who can conduct co-ordinated disease surveillance and outbreak investigation, as well as carry out research to inform local and regional health priorities.

APCOVE will bring together 40 experts from veterinary schools across Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the Asia-Pacific to design open source, online training modules and case studies, that will be used to train veterinarians in core epidemiological skills. The modules and case studies will teach several of the World Organisation for Animal Health’s Critical Competencies of the Performance of Veterinary Services, building skills in outbreak investigation and response; surveillance and data analysis; risk assessment and disease control; one health and biosecurity and leadership and communication.

Across the Indo-Pacific, gaps in workforce capacity present a major health security threat. Australians have great expertise to offer countries across the Indo-Pacific in preventing, detecting and responding to infectious disease threats. The Health Security Corps was established to deploy volunteers and build capacity for the prevention, detection and control of infectious disease.

Epidemiologists play a critical role in national and regional health security. Sometimes known as “disease detectives”, epidemiologists collect and analyse data from the field to understand the causes of infectious disease outbreaks and advise on containment measures.