Improvements in pandemic preparedness in 8 Central American countries, 2008 - 2012

BMC Health Services Research

Eduardo Azziz-Baumgartner⁴  Ann C Moen⁴  Marc-Alain Widdowson⁴  Nydia Amador³  Sergio Vinicio Pérez⁵  Carmen Lange^1,10  Maribel Orozco⁶  Naomi Iihoshi⁵  Natalia Blanco²  David Rodríguez⁹  Percy Minaya¹  Jorge Jara²  Carlos Marín-Correa¹  Rafael Chacón- Fuentes²  Manoj Gambhir⁸  Wilfrido Clará⁷  Lucinda EA Johnson⁴ 

[1] Training of Epidemiology and Public Health Intervention Network, Atlanta, GA, USA;Center for Health Studies, Universidad del Valle, Guatemala City, Guatemala;General Directorate of Health Surveillance, Ministry of Health of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica;Influenza Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA;National Epidemiology Center, Ministry of Health of Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala;Council of Ministers of Health of Central America and the Dominican Republic, San Salvador, El Salvador;Influenza Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Regional Office for Central America, San Salvador, El Salvador;Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia;General Directorate of Health Surveillance, Ministry of Health of El Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador;Department of Epidemiology, Ministry of Health of Panama, Panama City, Panama

关键词: Technical assistance;    Capacity-building;    Central America;    IHR;    Preparedness;    Influenza;    Pandemic;   

Others  :  1131284
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6963-14-209

 received in 2013-08-14, accepted in 2014-05-01,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

In view of ongoing pandemic threats such as the recent human cases of novel avian influenza A(H7N9) in China, it is important that all countries continue their preparedness efforts. Since 2006, Central American countries have received donor funding and technical assistance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to build and improve their capacity for influenza surveillance and pandemic preparedness. Our objective was to measure changes in pandemic preparedness in this region, and explore factors associated with these changes, using evaluations conducted between 2008 and 2012.

Methods

Eight Central American countries scored their pandemic preparedness across 12 capabilities in 2008, 2010 and 2012, using a standardized tool developed by CDC. Scores were calculated by country and capability and compared between evaluation years using the Student’s t-test and Wilcoxon Rank Sum test, respectively. Virological data reported to WHO were used to assess changes in testing capacity between evaluation years. Linear regression was used to examine associations between scores, donor funding, technical assistance and WHO reporting.

Results

All countries improved their pandemic preparedness between 2008 and 2012 and seven made statistically significant gains (p < 0.05). Increases in median scores were observed for all 12 capabilities over the same period and were statistically significant for eight of these (p < 0.05): country planning, communications, routine influenza surveillance, national respiratory disease surveillance, outbreak response, resources for containment, community interventions and health sector response. We found a positive association between preparedness scores and cumulative funding between 2006 and 2011 (R² = 0.5, p < 0.01). The number of specimens reported to WHO from participating countries increased significantly from 5,551 (2008) to 18,172 (2012) (p < 0.01).

Conclusions

Central America has made significant improvements in influenza pandemic preparedness between 2008 and 2012. U.S. donor funding and technical assistance provided to the region is likely to have contributed to the improvements we observed, although information on other sources of funding and support was unavailable to study. Gains are also likely the result of countries’ response to the 2009 influenza pandemic. Further research is required to determine the degree to which pandemic improvements are sustainable.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Johnson et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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